


Origami Hearts

by NintendoAceAttorneyFan



Series: The Keyblade Saga [1]
Category: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games), Paper Mario: The Origami King (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28117527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NintendoAceAttorneyFan/pseuds/NintendoAceAttorneyFan
Summary: King Olly and his sister plan on building a massive origami kingdom together. Meanwhile, Sora and his friends have defeated Xehanort and sealed Kingdom Hearts once again. An unexpected turn of events creates a connection between their two universes, branching out into several different ones. Olly's sister must find a way to stop her brother with the help of the Guardians of Light.
Series: The Keyblade Saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059887
Comments: 10
Kudos: 11





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prologue of this story was heavily inspired by "Two Thrones", an Origami King story written by GreyLiliy. I recommend you read their stories, I really enjoyed their stories and I think you should definitely check them out.
> 
> Here is their story link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25658131  
> GreyLiliy: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyLiliy/pseuds/GreyLiliy
> 
> (Also spoilers for Paper Mario: The Origami King)
> 
> I do not own any of these characters. Any Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy characters are properties of Disney (Kingdom Hearts) and Square Enix (Kingdom Hearts & Final Fantasy), while Origami King characters are owned by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems.

“At last, my work is complete!”

A triumphant voice rang through the halls of a small building. A short figure stood staring happily at his creation he had made on the workbench in front of him. For days, he had been trying to perfect his project. The object on the workbench suddenly stood up, as if it were an actual human being.

The man standing in front of it noticed it instantly and smiled. “Ah, you’re awake! Wonderful! How do you feel?”

The product of the man’s hard work was no ordinary creation… it was a different kind of being altogether: Origami. However, the origami creation hadn’t quite learned to speak at the moment, so it just tried to give its creator a quick nod as a response.

“So, it’s true… the Fold of Life prophecy can bring origami and paper to life.” The man looked reassuringly at the origami figure. “My child… you have a very special gift. Since you have been brought to life with the Fold of Life, perhaps you have the ability and the knowledge to fold origami yourself?”

The origami figure simply just shrugged in front of him.

The man chuckled. “Well, I suppose you’ll never know until you try.” He pulled out a toolbox filled with blank white sheets of origami paper. “Origami is an art… One sheet of origami paper can become virtually anything. So, go on. Fold to your heart’s content!”

Closing its eyes, the origami figure held out its stubby arms out and concentrated on the paper in front of it. The paper began to levitate, shocking its owner. His devotion to creating origami art was very strong… perhaps some of his knowledge and passion was transferred over to his origami experiment. Rather than being angry or disappointed, he merely smiled. He felt pride and satisfaction in watching what was basically his child take interest in the same things he liked to do. A few moments later, a small object fell onto the desk beside them: an origami crane.

The man clapped happily. “Bravo! Magnificent! I’ve never seen anyone master folding an origami crane quite so fast before!”

The origami figure smiled happily and hopped off the workbench onto the desk to inspect the crane. 

“Hm…” The man rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure I want to keep referring to you as ‘child’... it just doesn’t feel right. I should probably give you an actual name.”

The origami figure turned his head and stared at his creator with a bewildered expression on his face. 

“I see you’re confused…” The man looked around the room for a few seconds, lost in thought. “Hmm… I’m going to change the subject for a bit. You see, I wanted to construct an origami castle for a presentation, and in order to fully complete it, I would need an origami king and queen, because… well, it’s obvious why. You… my son… you can be the king. I will have to fold your sister using the same practice I did to bring you to life.”

The origami figure’s eyes lit up. Being able to rule over an origami kingdom, even if it was just a makeshift one, was a great honor. 

“But anyway, enough about my project.” He cleared his throat. “I hereby declare thee King Olly of the… folded castle.” He noticed visible confusion coming from his creation. “Um… in modern terms, that basically means ‘Your name is Olly, and you are the king of this origami kingdom I have created.’ Does that clear everything up?”

Olly quickly nodded and noticed the project the man had been talking about on the opposite side of the room. A beautiful castle lined with smooth green sheets of paper finished with a strawberry-red roof welcomed Olly, with a small hole in the center of it, revealing two empty origami thrones. Olly’s excitement quickly turned to loneliness and sadness… he would have the power to rule over a grand kingdom, but not have anyone to share the power with. 

“Don’t worry, Olly.” The man placed his hand reassuringly on Olly’s back. “You will have a sister soon, I can assure you that. I hope the Fold of Life can work again. By the way, I haven’t introduced myself to you yet. You may call me the Origami Craftsman… If that’s too hard, maybe just call me ‘Father’ or something else instead.”

Olly smiled happily, tears welling up inside of his eyes. For the next few hours after that, Olly practiced origami-folding techniques, with some help from the Origami Craftsman. Olly’s love for art and origami grew stronger and stronger every day—his plans to create an origami kingdom and his ambitions both grew larger; he imagined a world where paper folk and origami could exist in harmony. 

However, one mistake made because of Olly's creator's carelessness… one of the many taboos regarding the art of origami… was made by the Craftsman. The mistake that turned a charming and pacifist soon-to-be king into a ruler who believed that origami was above all other forms of paper… And that marked the beginning of the reign of the Origami King.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got a bit rough, but I can assure you I'll focus more on writing stories since it's almost the end of second term for my school! Yay winter break! xD


	2. The Kingdom

“Hey, brother?” 

Olly groaned. “What is it?”

“What were you saying earlier…? Something about you and me being… more superior than normal flat paper?”

“Oh, that.” He looked out of the window of the small building they were temporarily staying in. Sitting on the windowsill, he watched as droplets of water were blown by the strong wind against the glass. The sound of running water and the smell of fresh rainfall filled the air. “Remember when I told you about my creator? And I talked about him?”

Olly’s sister smiled brightly. “Heehee, yup! He seemed like a great person! Don’t you agree, Olly?”

Olly winced a small bit. “Er… y-yeah, yeah, he was a good person and everything.” Sighing, he turned around and noticed his sister frowning at him. “What’s wrong?"

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you look so… sad?” 

“I… It’s just…” She cleared her throat. “It seems like you miss your creator. You’re lonely, aren’t you? You really miss your creator, right?”

Olly nearly gagged, and he had to force out an answer. “Yes, I suppose I do. He wanted me to rule over a folded kingdom. He basically wanted me to be the king of… nothing. I remember when I was first folded… I felt so much pride and accomplishment when I was offered that position! Now I realize it was a scam! He wanted to make me feel special when I truly didn’t earn anything from it! I _will_ become the leader of an origami kingdom! I WILL TRULY BECOME KING OLLY!” He calmed down and turned back to my sister. “And you, my sister, shall be an origami queen.”

She smiled again. “I will?! Hooray! Caring for everyone, caring for the paper and the origami… it would be a great honor!”

“What?!” Olly was furious. “You _dare_ defy me?!”

She backed away from Olly slowly. “Wh-What? N-No, I would never—”

“We are to rule an _origami_ kingdom! Nothing flat is allowed inside the walls of our glorious city! All paper folk must surrender to our origami army!”

“What kind of royalty would we be if we… _murdered_ our visitors?!” She glared, nearly tearing up. “You… You can’t be serious!”

“Oh, I am serious, sister.” He began to levitate in front of her. “Origami folk are far more superior than those imbeciles made out of flat paper! When I become the king, I’ll eradicate all paper folk from existence if I have to!” 

“Y-You’re insane, brother!” She backed into a table. “Y-You’re not setting up a royalty… You’re setting up a _dictatorship_! I can’t believe you would say such things!”

“Royalty, dictatorship, whatever!” He glared back at her. “ _I_ am the king, so _I_ get to set up the rules! And, I’ll set up my first rule right now, just to make a point!” He cleared his throat and pretended to read off of a sheet of paper. “Any who disrespect the king or queen shall be arrested and subject to execution! You hear that, sister?! The KING or the QUEEN?!”

“D-Doesn’t that mean I’m safe from execution, though?” 

“No, it doesn’t!” He looked at his sister with a stoic expression on his face. “You’ve been extremely disrespectful to me. And now, you shall pay the price.” 

He raised his arms up towards the sky for a few seconds before pointing them at his sister. The entire house began to rumble, as if a giant earthquake had just struck. Ceramic plates rattled inside their cabinets before falling out and shattering into hundreds of pieces, nearly impaling his sister. A strong gust of wind filled the house, sending empty sheets of colorful origami paper flying around the room they were in. A heavy ceramic plate was thrown by the wind like a frisbee into the small window, shattering both of them. Olly’s sister quickly opened up the doors of the wardrobe behind her and slammed them shut. Olly noticed this, and quickly hovered over to the wardrobe menacingly before directing the wind to the doors, destroying them instantly. Olly stared at his sister, with a small evil grin on his face. He stuck out his hand and gently grabbed her cheek.

“Happy trails, sister,” he said sarcastically. He moved his arms as if he was performing a Naruto Jutsu. When he was finished, a bright portal emerged from behind his sister. She quickly panicked and began clawing at her brother, but to no avail. Before she could even land a single hit on Olly, she had been sucked through the portal.

The portal disappeared and the wind inside the room died down. The objects picked up by the wind fell to the ground, exploding into shards of sharp glass and ceramic, and broken wood from the chairs and tables in the center of the room. The room was also drenched in rainwater, which had entered from the smashed glass window on the side of the room. Potted plants left by the owner of the house had been destroyed, leaving nothing but dying green plants, soil, and fertilizer across the stone floor of the room. 

“Ah, hello there…”

Olly flinched. “Wh-What?! I mean, who’s there?! Show yourself!”

“So… I heard you wanted to rule over an origami kingdom.”

“Y-Yeah, that’s true. So what?” Olly glared. 

“I can help you rule over that kingdom.” The voice seemed deep and dark, but at the same time, it seemed reassuring. “I need you to lend me your power.”

“M-My power?” Olly looked at the mess around him he created. “Why on earth would you need that? The only power I have is the power to fold origami.”

“Yes, that will prove useful.” There was a small chuckle. “But that is not what I came here for. I have come here merely for the darkness in your heart.”

“The… darkness? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“You will eventually, don’t worry. Now please, follow me.”

“F-Follow you?!” Olly glared. “I don’t even know your _name_ yet!”

“You have great potential… There is much darkness within you, seeking its way out. Now then…”

“I thought you were going to introduce yourself.”

“Of course, my boy…” The voice turned sinister. “My name? I am known as the Seeker of Darkness.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup... a Naruto reference. I'm not addicted to Naruto. I swear.


	3. Destiny Islands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are minor Kingdom Hearts spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution if you have not completed up to Birth By Sleep and 358/2 Days.

“Hey, Sora!” A voice came from somewhere close to the mountains of the remote island the person named Sora was sitting at.

Sora turned around and noticed a close friend of his running towards him. He smiled brightly, welcoming him. He had yellow-brownish hair, wore a black leather coat, and had dark blue eyes. “Oh, hey, Roxas! What’s up?”

“Nothing much, I guess.” Roxas shrugged. He walked over to the spot where Sora was sitting close to the serene beach and sat down next to him. Staring at the setting sun, he said, “It’s beautiful… like sitting up on top of the clocktower and eating ice cream in Twilight Town.”

Sora smiled. “Y-Yeah… I’m sure that felt nice.”

“Is there something bothering you?” Roxas looked concerned. “You don’t seem confident as usual today. If there’s something wrong, you can trust me.”

Sora sighed. “It’s just… I’ve sensed some sort of disturbance. Like… it feels like something has just penetrated our world…”

“Heartless?” Roxas grinned. “If that’s the case, we should be able to take care of them with our Keyblades! They won’t stand a chance against us!”

“No, no, it’s not Heartless, it’s just…” He looked up at the orange and gray clouds, which looked as if they had been painted. “This… strange feeling has been tugging at me.” He turned to Roxas. “I… I’ve been thinking about something.”

“What is it?”

Sora took a deep breath and braced himself. “What if we’re not alone?”

“We still have the Gummi ship.” Roxas moved closer to the ocean. “We’re obviously not alone. There are warps and mazes that lead us to other worlds. You’ve been doing this for at least a year now. Surely you’d have gotten used to it by now.”

“I meant something from a different universe entirely. This strange feeling… I haven’t felt this way while facing off against the Heartless before… Maybe I should get some rest. It’s getting late. By the way, what time is it right now?”

Roxas looked at the sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon. “It’s somewhere close to seven, I think. Well, I’m going to go back to the other side of the island. Kairi and some of the others are there already. Feel free to join us if you ever want to."

“Thanks, Roxas.” Sora stood up and walked climbed up the smooth rocky mountain until he finally reached a ledge covered with sand. He pulled himself up and walked into a small shelter with some shelves and dusty books. Wiping away some of the dust, he sat down in the corner of the room next to the entrance and pulled out a book to read. As he pulled out a book, he accidentally knocked a small glass bottle off the shelf. The bottle hit the wooden floor but didn’t shatter, and Sora noticed a paper inside the bottle. Removing the cork, he looked inside the bottle and noticed a small rolled-up paper had been stuck inside of it. Sora pulled out the paper, which, given the current state of the room he was in, was surprisingly clean. Unrolling the paper, his eyes widened when he began reading what was written on it.

_ Thinking of you, wherever you are. _

Sora immediately stopped reading the paper and he began to feel a little teary-eyed. Rolling up the paper and neatly placing it back into its bottle, he dusted himself off and made his way towards the shelf. Putting the cork into the top of the bottle he placed it back onto the shelf he had found it, along with the dusty book that Sora had pulled out as well. A cool breeze made its way through the small opening that served as a window in the room. Sora looked outside, and noticed a tiny shimmer of orange light on the horizon—the sun had almost completely set, it was pretty late. Sora walked along the sandy ridge until he found a safe staircase that had been embedded into the side of the mountain that he used to climb down back to the beach. He made his way around the island until he found an entrance to a cave. Upon entering, he immediately tripped over something on the ground. Sora felt his way along the walls of the cavern, occasionally stumbling into vines. It had been some time since he returned to the islands, so he had forgotten a lot about it. Eventually, he reached the exit of the cave and quickly dashed outside.

“Oh, hey, Sora!” A girl with red hair greeted him warmly, smiling brightly. 

“Hey, Kairi.” Sora smiled back. “What are we doing here?”

“I dunno. Whatever, I guess.” A girl with the same attire as Roxas walked out of the shadows, except she had black hair. “We’re just hanging out here. Maybe we can do some sparring with Keyblades if you want?”

“Heh, you wouldn’t stand a chance against Sora, Xion,” Roxas teased, which prompted Xion to elbow him in the gut. “Ow! What’s your problem?! It was a joke! But seriously though, he has a couple years of experience with the Keyblade under his belt. Besides, you… me, and Namine… we’re Nobodies, like… clones.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Xion growled. She held out her fist and a Keyblade began to materialize, fitting perfectly inside her hand. Gripping her Keyblade tightly, she pointed it threateningly at Sora. “I challenge you, Sora!”

“U-Um…” Sora scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I’m, er, a little tired right now. Do you think maybe we could do some sparring tomorr—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, he had been swatted in the gut by Xion. The sudden attack sent him flying back about three feet, narrowly missing some sharp jagged stones in the corner of the enclosed beach. Sora’s Keyblade quickly began to materialize and he lunged at Xion, who barely managed to shield herself with her Keyblade. Sora began to push Xion’s keyblade closer to her neck.

“Thunder!” 

Sora yelped in pain and jumped backward. When he regained his composure, he glared at Xion and yelled, “That’s not fair, Xion!”

Xion smirked. “We didn’t set any rules. You always forget to do that, Sora… honestly, it’s a little disappointing for someone that’s been fighting using the Keyblade for years.”

“Well, if that’s how you wanna play, then…” He pointed his Keyblade at Xion. “Fire!”

A strong Firaga spell was thrusted towards Xion. She was knocked backward by the sudden burst of flame and sand that was created when Sora’s attack hit the ground. Xion climbed back onto her feet and cast a Stopra spell at Sora, causing him to suddenly stop moving. Xion smirked and marched over to Sora’s stiff body and swiped his Keyblade from him.  __ Sora gained consciousness again a few seconds later, and noticed Xion holding two Keyblades.

Sora looked at the palm of his hand. “What the…? Xion! You… cheater! You used a time spell, didn’t you?! That’s  _ completely _ unfair!”

“Says the one who tried to burn me alive just now!” Xion held the Keyblades like knives and prepared to charge at Sora. “You wanna surrender?”

“Never!” Sora glared at her.

“Sora, are you kidding?!” Roxas hissed. “You don’t even have a weapon! How are you supposed to beat a person with  _ two _ weapons?!”

“I may not have a weapon,” Sora mused. “But I do have some tricks up my sleeve.”

“Whatever.” Roxas scoffed. “If you get killed, it’s your funeral… Uh… no pun intended.”

Xion lunged at Sora with both Keyblades behind her back and was prepared to bring both of the weapons down on Sora. Sora turned around toward a tall ledge and squatted in front of it. Without warning, he jumped into the air much higher than everyone expected. The spectators were shocked as Sora grabbed the grassy ledge and climbed up onto the ledge. Xion couldn’t react quick enough and basically face-planted into the wall. Sora grinned as he watched what was happening below. He dropped off the ledge and landed in the sand next to Xion, who didn’t have much of a reaction. Picking up his Keyblade, Sora walked over to the bonfire his friends had set up and sat down in front of it. 

When Xion finally regained consciousness, Roxas walked with her to the rest of the Keyblade wielders where they sat and chatted about how their lives were going. The smoky scent of the burning firewood and the salty scent of the nearby beach filled the air and helped calm everyone down. 

Xion stretched and yawned. “You know, I wouldn’t mind living here on Destiny Islands.”

“Why, though?” Roxas asked. “There’s nothing to do here other than swimming. I mean, don’t get me wrong, swimming in the ocean is nice, but… unless you’re going to swim every day and build sandcastles, then you probably shouldn’t stay here.”

“I’d take staying at Destiny Islands over fighting Heartless any day.”

“Same here,” Kairi responded. “The islands are mostly uninhabited, we do have a few small buildings that Sora, Riku, and I live in. We would travel around the island every day doing activities such as running, swimming, and reading and writing.”

A boy with gray hair was sitting across from Sora, next to a blue-haired girl. The gray-haired boy spoke first. “Hey, Sora. It’s been a while.”

“Hehe, yup.” Sora nodded. “Hey, Riku. It’s great to be able to be with my friends again. Also… hi, Aqua.”

The blue-haired girl smiled at him. “Hello, Sora. It’s great to see you again.”

“Wait…” Roxas turned to Aqua. “Where’s Terra and Ventus?”

“I’m not really sure.” Aqua shrugged. “I saw Ventus sitting on a part of the mountain staring at the sea. Terra, though… he just disappeared. I haven’t seen him anywhere.”

Xion rested her head against the cool sand. “We should probably get some sleep. It’s getting late.”

“Xion’s right,” Riku said. “It’s getting really late. We can talk about this again tomorrow.”

“Hang on, someone needs to find Terra and Ventus,” Kairi said.

Aqua raised her hand. “I’ll look for them. When I find both of them, I’ll return.” She climbed up and walked into the cavern.

“Alright…” Roxas stretched. “See you later, Aqua. Be careful out there.”

Sora didn’t say anything. The duel with Xion had exhausted him; he could barely stay awake. After a few minutes, he had fallen asleep; the last thing he remembered was the soft sound of waves crashing along the rocks that guarded them from the seawater. The strange feeling he felt earlier… perhaps it would be better if he waited until the next day to explain it to the others. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow... I went from being in a three-month-long hiatus to cranking out chapters for a new story almost every day. I probably won't be able to keep this up, since the chapters will eventually get longer, but now I actually have time to do writing, so I'll be posting more on this site.


	4. The Meeting

“Wh-What…? Where am I?”

The person looked up and noticed a cloaked figure standing in front of him. 

“Wh-Who are you? If you’re an enemy, you’d better not mess with me! I’ll destroy you with my power!”

“Your power?” The person in front had a raspy feminine voice, and had sharp horns instead of ears. “You mean your paper-folding technique?! Don’t make me laugh. We’re here to destroy the Keyblade wielders, not to fold paper airplanes and throw them around. My dear Olly, you have much darkness streaming through your veins… Your blood… it’s practically made out of darkness.”

“‘Your dear Olly?!’” Olly suddenly stood up. “You have no right to call me that, you creep!”

“Hmph. Have it your way then.” She turned around. “You can just stay there and rot in the dungeon for all I care. No matter… we’ll just find a different person that can help us.”

“Wait!” Olly stuck his hand out of his cell, well, he tried to at least. (It’s hard to do that when your arms are only two inches long.) “Please… I’m sorry. I’ll do what you want me to do! Anything!”

“Anything, huh…” The woman sneered. “Marvelous. Fine, you have gained my trust. Follow me to the next room. We’ve got some questions for you, new recruit.”

The woman pulled a key from the cloak she was wearing and inserted it into the lock containing Olly in his cell. Olly hesitated before slowly levitating himself off the mossy ground and moving alongside the woman. The hallway he had been trapped in was drab: there was water leaking everywhere, the walls were black and basically covered with darkness, and the door on the other side of the room looked like it was about to become unhinged if anyone were to open it. The woman slowly opened the door, revealing a small table with… well, less than appealing people sitting around it.

“Well, well,” one of them said. They looked like they were a stuffed toy—white cotton, stitches all around their body, black eyes and black mouth—and they spoke in a tone that made Olly believe they were eccentric. “Look who it is!”

“A new recruit?” Another one scoffed. They wore a red suit, had a black moustache, wore a white cravat, and had a hook instead of a hand. “Bah… I thought we already had enough villains in here!”

“Yeah, great, a new pest.” There was a loud sigh. “Well, on the bright side, at least they can’t be as annoying as everyone else here.”

“Oh, shut up, you!” The man with the red suit pounded the table. “As if  _ you’re _ so great yourself! You lost to a kid! And a dog and a mouse!”

“Huh, that’s strange. I don’t remember you doing anything special.” The person rolled his eyes. 

“That’s because I’m just a pirate.” The red-suit man glared. “You’re a god! You have powers, yet you couldn’t even beat Hercules!”

“Alright,” the woman blurted. “That’s enough, all of you. We don’t need to start an argument over these ridiculous things. Now, a strange man paid me a visit earlier. He didn’t say much, he just told me that this would be the key to our success, and then he vanished into the darkness. Now then, origami figure, I heard that you have great potential.”

Olly sighed. “Y-Yeah, that’s right.”

“If you truly have potential, would you mind explaining what you can do for us?” She flashed a small evil grin. 

“W-Well…” Olly fiddled with his stubby hands. “I… I can f-fold… origami, but I can also…”

“Origami?!” the toy-like person yelled, before bursting into laughter. “That has gotta be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! What are you gonna do, crush them to death with fortune tellers?! Or impale them with paper airplanes?! This is just stupid!”

“Are we in some kinda dream right now? ‘Cause, you know, all of this just feels a little strange. I mean, we got Stuffed Animal over here, and then Floating Origami Man over there. It just seems awkward.”

“This all does seem a little far-fetched,” the woman replied. “However, in order to stop the king and his legion of Keyblade-wielding imbeciles, we’re going to need all the help we can get. We need to use every opportunity we are given. Now, this origami-folding idea seems weird, but if we can perfect his skills, we can be unstoppable.”

A man holding a staff spoke up. “She’s right, you know. Perhaps this origami fellow could be of good use. Now then, origami man, show us your folding techniques!”

Olly suddenly fluttered around nervously. “U-Um… right now? Like  _ now _ now?”

“Of course, idiot.” The man groaned in disgust. “And here I was, thinking that you’d actually be smart.” He suddenly raised his voice. “Well, what are you waiting for, you imbecile?! START FOLDING NOW!”

“I… I can’t do it.”

“What?!” There was suddenly a burst of heat in the room. Olly was pushed back several feet and the force of the blow knocked him down onto his back. When he slowly climbed back up, he noticed one of the people sitting at the table had a flamed head. “You mean you made us wait for ten minutes just to tell us you can’t actually fold paper?!”

“Um… in order to fold origami, I need paper.” Olly nervously backed away from the group. “I… I think I’m just gonna head back to my cell now.”

“Hold it, you’re not going anywhere.” The woman grabbed his arm. “You’re going to stay right here until you can prove your statement to us.” She turned to the table. “Someone, give me a sheet of paper.”

The stuffed toy person pulled out a notebook and tore out a sheet and handed it to the woman. The woman turned around and stuck it in Olly’s hands.

“There you go.” The woman glared. “There’s your paper. Now fold it into origami.”

Olly nearly threw up. “This is folder paper,” he said, handing the paper back in disgust.

“Yes, it is.” The woman scowled at Olly. “So what?”

“It’s also ripped.” Olly flipped his hair. “The paper is ruined.”

The woman shoved the folder paper back into Olly’s hands. “I don’t care if it’s ripped, I don’t care if it’s folder paper, JUST FOLD IT INTO ORIGAMI!”

Olly groaned in disgust before tossing the paper into the air in front of him. Focusing on the paper and ignoring the fact that it wasn’t the type he had requested, he attempted to fold it into origami. The paper folded messily into an origami crane… it looked a little like a crane, but some parts of it were creased and torn. 

“This… origami crane… is, well, interesting, to say the least.”

Olly sighed. “If you give me origami paper, I can do better.”

“Whatever,” the woman interrupted. “You have proven to us that you have skill when it comes to folding, Olly. But, you will have to get your supplies yourself. Do you know where we can get this origami paper you desire so much?”

Olly glanced around the room for a second, before finally responding. “Well… it’s not origami paper per se, but…”

“Well?!” the blue-haired man snapped. “Where is it?!”

“I think I have an idea.”


	5. The Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Minor Origami King spoilers. That is all.)

“Sora…?” There was a panicky voice. “R-Roxas?! E-Everyone! Wake up, please!”

Sora woke up and found himself face-planted in the cold sand of the beach. He choked on some particles of sand and quickly shot up onto his feet. He noticed Aqua standing near him and Roxas. 

“O-Oh, good, you’re awake!” Aqua was hyperventilating. “Th-There’s a huge problem on the other side of the island! I-I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do! I decided to just come here and wake everyone up!”

Riku groaned and blinked some sand out of his eyes. “Aqua… what’s wrong? It… it’s the middle of the night…”

“V-Ventus and Terra… Th-They’ve disappeared!”

Riku jumped up. “Wh-What?! H-How could this be possible?!”

“I-I… I don’t know!” Aqua began pacing back and forth, sweating nervously. “I… I saw Ventus a few hours ago, and now… he’s just gone!”

Sora walked over to where Roxas was sleeping. He noticed that Xion had her arms wrapped around Roxas’ neck. Sora chuckled and gently shook Roxas awake.

“Eh… S-Sora?” Roxas mumbled. “Wh-What’s going on? Wait… huh?” He turned and noticed Xion sleeping with her arms wrapped around him and blushed dark red. “X-Xion?!”

Xion woke up and jerked away from Roxas. “R-Roxas?! I… I’m sorry!” She blushed and turned away from Roxas. 

Sora laughed a little. “Heh, I didn’t think you actually liked each other like that.” Xion responded by pulling out her Keyblade and whacking Sora in the forehead with it.

“Thanks,” Roxas said.

“He was asking for it,” Xion responded. 

Sora stood back up. “Alright, on a more serious note… Ventus and Terra have disappeared. We have no idea where they went, Aqua’s having a mental breakdown, and we don’t have enough time to build a raft—”

“S-Sora!” A girl’s voice echoed through the island. “Look up in the sky!”

Sora and the others glanced at the dark sky. There was a bright yellow flash that flew across the sky like a shooting star. This one, however, seemed a lot bigger than usual… it almost seemed as if it was moving closer to the island. 

“GET DOWN!” Riku yelled, and he ducked.

Everyone else followed Riku and felt the heat of the celestial object barely missing the mountaintop. It felt like they were in a sauna or a hot spring, and the flames from the object evaporated some of the saltwater in the beach. Some of the palm trees in the area everyone had been sleeping were scorched in the process. This was all followed by a massive explosion that basically shook the entire island. When the temperature finally dropped back to normal again and the smell of smoke disappeared, everyone got back up. 

“What the hell was that?!” asked a red-haired boy. 

“I… I’m not sure, Lea!” Xion yelled. “Whatever it was, it sure seemed hostile!

“We should probably check it out,” Sora said.

“Sora…” Roxas stared at him. “Did you hit your head during your fight with Xion earlier? You’re constantly coming up with these… terrible decisions! That thing… it could’ve been sent by the Heartless!”

“It wouldn’t hurt to check it out.” Sora walked inside the cavern.

Kairi sighed. “He just doesn’t listen, does he…”

Kairi, Riku, and Lea extinguished the flames from the fire they had created and decided to follow Sora to the other side of the island. Upon entering the mountain, they felt a tremendous amount of heat, but there was no sign of smoke or burning. Riku leaned against the wall of the cave and jumped in surprise. He yelped and tripped over Lea.

“Riku, what happened?” Xion yelled from behind.

“The wall… it felt like I was in a furnace… It’s extremely hot!” He rubbed his back in pain and groaned. “J-Just… try your best to stay away from it.”

Sora and Aqua continued down the path but there didn’t seem to be a light on the other side of the tunnel. They traveled along the narrow path for a few more seconds before Sora bumped into a cold object. The object was smooth like a stone but felt cold as if it had been stored in a refrigerator. Aqua looked at Sora with a nervous expression, though Sora couldn’t see her face properly.

“Sora, do you think we went the wrong way?”

Sora chuckled. “Er, of course not. The tunnel is a straight path, remember?”

Aqua blushed a little. “S-Sorry… I’ve just been thinking about Terra and Ventus too much recently…”

“It’s alright, Aqua. We’re all shaken up right now… But… If the path is straight and there’s a strange object in the way, then that means…”

“There’s obviously been a rockslide,” Kairi replied, finishing Sora’s sentence. “It means we’re trapped in here… well, I suppose we could try to climb the mountain, but… that’s not exactly the safest option here.”

“W-Well, what are we supposed to do?” Xion asked.

“I have an idea!” Kairi yelled. Equipping her Keyblade, she pointed it at the rockslide in front of them and closed her eyes. “Gravira!” A beam of dark light shot from the tip of her Keyblade, hitting the rocks. Instead of being pulled closer to the ground, the rocks were surrounded by a forcefield-like barrier, and began to hover in the air. 

“Wow, Kairi…” Riku was amazed. “How’d you learn to do that?”

Kairi grinned. “Some training with Aqua and Terra. I guess it really paid off in the end, huh?”

“Right!” Sora turned to the exit. “We’ve got our first problem out of the way. Let’s head out and search for the area where the object landed.”

In a single-file line, they left the cave. The beach on this side of the island looked relatively clean, other than a few palm trees with black scorch marks and some fallen coconuts and leaves. However, the fresh, salty sea air that was usually present was overpowered by a foul, smoky scent. 

The blond girl following them choked. “Wh-What is this awful scent? It smells like oil… no, _worse_ than oil… and that’s really saying something.”

“I don’t know, Namine,” Roxas said. “It didn’t smell like this when I went to visit Sora earlier.”

“Hey, what’s that?” Xion said, pointing to a small yellow object lying half-buried in the sand. “Is… Is this a paopu fruit?”

“Were you planning on sharing that with Roxas?” Sora teased. He walked over to it, with Xion following closely behind.

Xion punched him in the gut, her face tomato-red. “It w-was an accident! Stop bringing that up, or else I’ll tell everyone you like Kairi!”

“Wait… you like me?” Kairi asked.

“N-No… I mean…” Sora growled in anger, before taking a deep breath to calm himself down. He grabbed the end of the paopu fruit that was sticking out of the ground. “Look… Let’s just take the paopu fruit and two people can eat it later.” Suddenly, Sora jumped when he felt something hit his hand.

“Did… Did that paopu fruit just move?” Riku asked. “I… This is absurd…”

“It must just be your imagination, Riku,” Kairi said. “There’s no way the paopu fruit could move. That would be impossible.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Riku sighed and grabbed the paopu fruit. This time, however, there was a loud muffled screaming noise.

“Wh-What was that?!” Kairi shouted.

“Okay, that _definitely_ wasn’t my imagination.” Riku stared at the fruit, nervously. “The fruit just screamed at me.”

The paopu fruit suddenly launched itself into the air, spraying sand and dirt in every direction. The fruit had a yellow star shape on its top, but on its bottom, there appeared to be legs instead of the normal star-shaped points that were usually present on a paopu fruit. The fruit hovered in the air, and seemed to have… eyes?

“Wh-Wh… WHAT IS THAT THING?!” Roxas yelled. “This paopu fruit is rotten! It must be destroyed! It’s possessed!”

“What?! I AM _NOT_ A… PAW-OH-POOH FRUIT!” The hovering object’s voice was extremely loud. “YOU’D BETTER NOT TRY TO EAT ME!”

“I… I’m sorry…” Kairi sighed. “I didn’t mean to…”

“I DIDN’T WANT TO COME TO THESE ISLANDS! I WAS FORCED HERE! RIGHT WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS ABOUT TO BE RESCUED, THE ONLY THING EVERYONE TALKED ABOUT WAS _EATING_ ME!”

Aqua walked up to it. “W-Wait… how long have you been stranded here?”

“I’ve been stuck here for about ten minutes!” The floating object glared. “I fell from out of the sky and then got stuck in the ground!”

“Fell from out of the…?” Namine thought for a second. “Wait, were _you_ the object that crashed into the island?”

“Um, I think so…” The object looked around at the scenery. “It all happened so fast… I was with my brother, got pushed into the sky, fell for a few hours, and then crashed into… wherever this is! Sorry… I’ve just been having a rough day.”

“Well, mind introducing yourself?” asked Riku.

“Sure… just promise you won’t mistake me for a… papaya fruit again.”

Riku chuckled. “Fine… I promise.”

“I’m Olivia!” The object fluttered happily. “It feels so much better that I got most of the rage out of my system! Now I can finally relax!”

Xion looked at Olivia’s body, and noticed several folds and creases along it. “You’re… made of origami?”

“Yup!” Olivia smiled. “Made of pure origami paper! It’s very nice meeting all of you! I hope you paper folk can get along with the origami.”

“Er… paper folk?” Sora looked worried. “What do you mean by _paper folk_?”

“You’re made of paper, obviously! Come on, everything is made up of paper!” She noticed everyone whispering nervously around her. “Er… right? I’m right, aren’t I?"

“We’re… not made of paper…” Roxas said nervously. “Um… you didn’t hit your head when you landed on the island, did you? I mean, you _were_ half-buried.”

“How dare you?!” Olivia poked his arm with her stubby hands.

“Ow!” Roxas rubbed his arm, noticing a small red mark on it. “I didn’t think origami could be so… violent.”

Xion coughed loudly, interrupting Roxas. “Anyway… Perhaps you’d like to explain how you ended up here on Destiny Islands? I’m sure this’ll be interesting.”

Olivia gave a quick death stare to Roxas before continuing. “Sure, I’ll explain. I have a brother named Olly, and he… He’s sadistic, honestly. He plans on constructing an origami kingdom, where he plans to make all paper suffer at the hands of origami. I tried to talk him out of it, but… he flew into a rage when we were discussing it. And then, he… he just… pushed me out of the dimension I was in, and now… I’m here on this island.”

“That’s horrible,” Sora said. “But… what exactly do you mean by he pushed you out of your dimension?”

“I hid in a wardrobe in the room we were staying in to avoid his wrath, but he destroyed my hiding spot. And then, I felt a strange force pulling me backwards. Everything went dark after that. When I came to, I noticed the smell of salt and a small flame on a beach. Then, I got my head stuck in the sand, and everything went dark again."

“Well, now we’re all stuck here,” Lea said, gloomily. “Um… does anyone have any idea what to do?”

Olivia stared at the waterfall in front of her. “Well… I was thinking maybe we could… Wait, what’s that?”

“Olivia, what’s the matter?” asked Riku.

“Up there!” She pointed up to a rock at the top of the waterfall. “I can’t tell from here, but it looks like some kind of paper!”

Namine pointed her Keyblade at what was possibly paper. “Gravira!” The paper gradually was pulled towards the group, and Aqua was the first to grab it. 

“Hey… this isn’t ordinary paper, it’s an envelope!” Aqua made a slit in the envelope and tore it open, revealing a small letter and a drawing. Aqua disregarded the picture and read over the letter:

_To Aqua and Everybody Else,_

_If you’re wondering where I am, I’ve been transferred to some weird dimension. Everything seems flat around here… like, everything seems to be made out of paper. There are these really freaky people wearing mushrooms for hats, but most of them are really nice when you talk to them. Along the way, I’ve seen some strange creatures… Creatures that look a bit more thick than the regular inhabitants of the area. But there’s something more serious I must address. These ruffians broke into the area Terra and I were staying in. They maimed me, but I recovered. They grabbed Terra and dragged him somewhere… I’m not sure where. I have created a quick sketch of their leader, some of the colors may not be correct. I doubt it would be of much use to you now, but I recommend you hold onto the drawing… Just in case._

**_Ven_ **

“Th-This letter… This letter is from Ventus!” Aqua was half-relieved, half-worried. “I’m glad to hear he’s still alive…”

“But we don’t know when the letter was written…” Kairi looked down at the sand below her. “Ventus has been missing for hours. For all we know, those ruffians could’ve taken him hostage by now.”

“Y-You’re right… I… I’m sorry.” Aqua cleared her throat. “And now… we shall go find them. We will rescue both of them.”

“Where are we supposed to start, though?” Xion looked out at the horizon. 

“We’ll find a way,” Riku said reassuringly. “We’re friends, aren’t we? No matter how rough things become between us, in the end, we’ll always have each other’s backs. Now then, Olivia… can you lead the way to where our friends are?” He turned and noticed Olivia standing still as a statue. “Um… Olivia? What’s wrong?”

“Th-This drawing...” Olivia stuttered. “Th-This drawing is of my brother!”

“What?!” Sora yelled. “Let me see!”

Sora grabbed the paper from Olivia’s hands and scanned the drawing. Although it was a quick sketch, Ventus had done a good job detailing it. The character drawn on the paper had purple robes, a golden crown, and yellow-blond hair. The person looked very similar to Olivia, but the character also had a stoic expression on his face compared to Olivia’s bubbly and naive personality. This person had sent Olivia to Destiny Islands?

“He… He looks really serious in this drawing,” Sora mused, before handing the picture over to Aqua. “So this is the person that’s gonna become the origami king, huh?”

“Y-Yeah,” Olivia squeaked, her voice barely detectable. “H-He… He’s really passionate about creating that kingdom… a little _too_ passionate.”

“M-Maybe we can stop him!” Roxas blurted. “We’ve stopped people _way_ more powerful than him before, so this should be easy!”

“I… I hope so.” Olivia fluttered over to the fresh pool of water at the base of the mountain. “I don’t want to kill my brother, though… I know he’s been acting strange recently, but there are times when he’s been a really nice person. My only hope is that I’ll be able to talk some sense into him. For now, though, we should just focus on how we’re supposed to get off this island.”

Sora’s Keyblade materialized in his hand and he pointed it at the sky above him. The others followed and aimed their Keyblades at the starry night sky, while Olivia watched in amazement. A bright white beam of light was launched into the sky, and a small barrier was created around them. 

Sora smirked at Olivia. “Next stop… your homeworld.”

He thrusted the Keyblade up at the sky, and the light enveloped them completely, leaving no trace of them on the islands. 


	6. Traverse Town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the first Kingdom Hearts.

Everyone felt themselves being pulled by a strange force, much stronger than gravity. Olivia hovered around them, shaking nervously. Roxas calmed her down, and a few minutes later they were surrounded by cyan barriers. Sora pulled out his Keyblade again and opened up a second portal which they were all sent through. Once again, a blinding light engulfed them and they felt themselves falling down an endless void of whiteness. 

When the light finally died down and they reached the other end of the portal, they fell out and landed on the bumpy pavement some several feet below. They looked around the place they had just entered: There was a cafe with tables and candles, several small shops around the plaza, and a few apartments and houses. Behind them was a massive door which read:  _ World Exit _ on it.

“Not again…” Sora groaned. “I… Why are we back here in Traverse Town…? I thought we were going to Olivia’s homeworld! There must be some kind of mistake here.”

Riku looked at Sora. “The reason you came to Traverse Town on your first visit was because Destiny Islands was overrun and destroyed by the Heartless. So, that could also mean that…”

“M-My homeworld is gone?!” Olivia nearly began to sob. “H-How could that be possible?!”

“Or Sora just screwed up,” Roxas said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.”

“Ha ha, very funny, Roxas,” Sora growled, grabbing Roxas by his collar. “Well, since we’re here, we might as well take a look around. The town doesn’t seem much different from when I first arrived… the shops and buildings seem to be in the same place.”

Olivia moved closer to Riku. “S-So… what does it mean if we ended up here?”

Riku sighed. “Kairi, Sora, and I used to live on Destiny Islands. We had a peaceful life there, and we also had some other friends… Who knows where they are now. Everything was fine until one night when Heartless began to appear on the island. Sora reached out and gained his Keyblade which he used to defeat the Heartless that were invading. Our homeworld was soon overrun by darkness… Sora was sent here to Traverse Town, and I was sent to… a mysterious world, much different from the one Sora and Kairi had gone to.”

Aqua and Namine stared at a small building about ten feet away from where they were standing. The building had a round, stone rooftop with a chimney and had wooden walls. The building was small, and was located next to an alleyway. There was a sign strewn across the front wall of the building which read “Accessory Shop.”

“Maybe we should check out the building over there?” Olivia suggested. “Perhaps they’ll be able to give us some directions around the city.” She smiled and fluttered excitedly near Sora, Riku, and Kairi. “Well, what are you all waiting for? Let’s head out!”

Olivia hovered toward the accessory shop while everyone else followed her. Despite all of the trauma she had gone through recently, Olivia still remained surprisingly calm and happy. Her naive personality hadn’t quite worn off yet, but everyone was content with her in their group. Olivia prepared to walk straight through the doors when she was stopped by-

“Hey… the door’s stuck!” Olivia looked at the keyhole in the door. “I mean, I’m no expert on running stores but you should at least put a closed sign before leaving your shift, know what I mean? Also, my arms can’t reach very far… it’s hard to really do anything, to be honest.”

“Is there a problem, kupo?” a quiet voice came from behind.

“No… I mean YES! YES, there is a problem! The door won’t budge!”

The voice came from a short white creature with a red nose and a white antenna with a red ball at the end of it. Its eyes appeared to be closed, but it slowly moved closer to Olivia and the rest of the Keyblade wielders.

“The owner of the shop has left for the night, kupo. You should be able to find him in his house. He lives in the Third District of Traverse Town, kupo.”

“Thanks… er, cat creature… Wait, my name isn’t Kupo. It’s Olivia.”

“I’m sorry, kupo…” The creature looked at the rest of them. “Hey… I think I remember you, kupo.” It pointed at Sora. 

“H-Huh?” Sora was taken aback. “You remember me?”

“Of course, kupo! It’s impossible to forget you! You’ve won all of those championships at the Olympus Coliseum, kupo.”

Olivia leaned close to Sora. “Who is this creature? And why do they keep calling people…  _ kupo _ ? Is that like a nickname or something?”

“Um…” Aqua looked around nervously. “If you don’t mind me asking, would you kindly… tell us what species you are?”

“Sure, I don’t mind, kupo! I’m a Moogle, kupo! Anyway… I would like to ask you a question, kupo. How exactly did you end up here in Traverse Town?”

“We tried to access Olivia’s world earlier,” Riku said. “We left Destiny Islands to find her brother and put a stop to his evil plans, but… Something went wrong while we were traveling to her homeworld. We ended up in the Traverse Town plaza, and wanted to find some people who could give us directions.”

“I see, kupo… This brave fighter I once knew suddenly disappeared from the world I was staying in, kupo, and suddenly, the whole world began to crumble. Darkness engulfed me and my many friends, but… I ended up here, while many of my other friends ended up in different regions.”

Olivia smiled. “Thanks, Moogle… but, why do you keep calling everyone kupo? Is that a nickname you give everyone?”

Lea looked at Olivia. “Kupo must be like a… trademark of the Moogle race. At least, that’s what I can gather from the conversation.”

“Oh, that makes more sense. Well… I guess we have to travel to the Third District to find the shopkeeper and ask him for access to the shop. Or, more importantly, for directions around, um, what was this place called again?  _ Travel Town _ ? Whatever, something like that.”

“Which way is this Third District?” Aqua asked. “Sorry… I don’t think I’ve ever visited here before.”

The Moogle motioned to a gate to the right of them. “Just take the door on your right, kupo. That door will lead you straight to the Third District, and you can find the shopkeeper’s home on the left after leaving the First District.”

“Thanks, Moogle,” Olivia said before heading to the gate. “Hm… this Traverse Town seems really nice. Like, it’s very calm and everyone’s so friendly around here. Wouldn’t you want to stay here, Sora… and everyone?”

Aqua looked around in amazement and confusion for a few moments before finally responding with, “Yes, this town  _ is _ rather calm… but I wouldn’t want to live here. Maybe visiting would be more up my alley.” She sighed quietly and mumbled quickly. “If only Ven and Terra could see this place…”

Kairi picked up what she was saying. “Don’t worry too much about them, Aqua. Remember, they’re Keyblade wielders. Surely they’ll be able to defend themselves."

“You’re right, Kairi,” Aqua replied, smiling sadly. She looked up at the starry night sky.  _ Terra and Ven… wherever you are, please stay safe. We’ll be there eventually.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I'm not really sure where I was taking this chapter. I might end up putting a familiar character (maybe a Final Fantasy character?) soon in the story. Thank you for reading and supporting the story so far! :)  
> Or should I say... thanks for supporting the story, kupo. (Sorry I'm bad at Moogle talk.)


	7. Fateful Reunion

“Um…” Olivia said as she peered into the Third District after opening the door. “Is this the right district? This part of Traverse Town looks a lot different than the First District. Has it always been like this?”

Sora quietly nodded before stepping through the doorway into what was supposedly the Third District. There were several buildings that were connected in that area, a railing decorated with colored lights, and a staircase to the right of them. There was only one building with lights on inside, and the soft sound of running water was produced from somewhere in the lower part of the district. Riku quietly walked over to the door and leaned against it.

“You’re sure this is the shopkeeper’s home?” Olivia suddenly became worried. “They seem like the shady type… um… what I mean is their house is in a pretty strange spot. I wonder why they aren’t answering the door, maybe they’re not home right now…”

“The lights are on, though,” Riku said. 

“Maybe they forgot to turn them off?” Olivia hovered over to the door and knocked on it quietly. “Um… Hello? We came here from the store in the First District. We were wondering if you could give us access to it! I think you might have locked it.”

There was no response. The light stayed on, and everything around them was quiet.

Olivia turned around. “N-No one’s answering. They might just be somewhere in the city.”

“No, I’m here,” a voice said from the building. The door to the house unlocked and the person inside slowly opened. Someone slowly waddled out, casting a giant shadow on everyone in front of them. They had yellow hair, wore brown goggles, a necklace, and a white shirt… but they had a strange voice. Sora looked at him with a confused expression… they looked different than normal people.

“Cid?” Sora slowly approached him. “Cid… is that you?”

“You know this guy?” Olivia asked.

“Yeah… I met him when I first arrived here in the First District of Traverse Town. He was running the Accessory Shop over there.”

“He… looks strange,” Olivia said, observing him closely. “Almost like he’s…” Olivia suddenly froze. Was this person made out of... Olivia shook her head. 

“What’s wrong, Olivia?” Kairi asked. “You just went stiff there.”

“It… It’s nothing. I was just having some bad memories, that’s all.”

Kairi looked at her with a serious expression. “Olivia, we’re all here to support each other. No matter what, we’re a family. We all care for each other and we always will. If there’s anything bothering you, just know that you can trust us. We’ll all be here to support you.”

Olivia relaxed a bit. “Th-Thanks, Kairi… I’m glad you and the others found me. Although you said you wanted to eat me… that part spooked me a bit. But now, it seems like we’ve made up, so… I guess I should tell you what’s on my mind.”

Kairi nodded. “Go on.”

Taking a deep breath, Olivia recalled what had traumatized her. “I… You may not believe what I’m about to say, but I think the shopkeeper has been turned into origami.”

“Origami?” Xion asked. “Like… you?”

“No… I mean, yeah, origami, but…” She sighed. “It’s hard to explain. The origami paper this man has been folded from is different from the type of paper used when my creator folded me. My guess is that my brother has found his way into Traverse Town, and now he’s wreaking havoc here… and in my homeworld.”

“Then he must be behind the disappearance of your world!” Sora yelled, pulling out his Keyblade. “Alright, Keyblade Warriors, let’s get Olivia’s brother!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” A sinister voice came from above them. A pointed figure slowly descended upon them, staring at Cid. “Hello again, sister.”

“B-Brother?!” Olivia was horrified. “Wh-What are you doing here?”

“Let me make it simple.” He flipped his hair off of his left eye. “I’m here to put a stop to your plans. You may have thwarted me in the past, dear sister, but now… You are about to witness the true power of origami!”

“Leave these people alone!” Olivia screamed, beginning to cry. “They’ve done nothing to you! What could you possibly have against them?!”

Olly chuckled. “Nothing personal. Except… well, everything. I have a confession to make. I made a deal with some _friends_ I met earlier. These friends… they want Traverse Town and other worlds in this universe destroyed! And I shall grant their wish. Go forth, my Folded Soldiers! Eliminate Sora and his band of Keyblade-wielding friends! But, do watch out for my sister. I have a feeling she will be of good use in the future.” With those words, a group of origami Goombas and Shy Guys appeared. 

“Whoa!” Riku jumped back. “What are those things?!”

Olly sneered. “They are my army, my origami army. Now then, I’ve been sent to wipe any remaining Keyblade wielders from existence. Once my Folded Soldiers have dealt with you, I will begin the search for my next target: the king. I will make my leave now.”

“WAIT!” Aqua yelled. “What happened to Ventus and Terra?!”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Olly shrugged. “I haven’t heard of anyone named that before.”

“Liar! You obviously know something about them! I received a letter and a drawing from one of them! The drawing and the description of you match perfectly! He’s told me all about your plans! You can’t hide anymore!”

“WHAT?!” Olly raged. “That bastard…!” He took a deep breath and smirked at Aqua, who was glaring. “Thank you for telling me about your friends, my dear. I will take care of them now. Good day.” With that, he vanished, leaving behind a swarm of Folded Soldiers. 

Aqua suddenly gasped. “Wh-What have I done… Th-They’re going to get Ventus and Terra, and… and… I… I don’t even want to think about what will happen to them!”

Sora put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Aqua. We won’t let anything happen to them. Besides, we’re all a great team. We’ll put a stop to Olivia’s brother’s plan… Oh, that reminds me.” Sora turned to Olivia. “What was your brother’s name again?”

“His name is Olly.” Olivia looked at the squadron of Folded Soldiers in front of her. “He has the power to create origami soldiers which he calls Folded Soldiers. He creates them by forcing and stapling normal paper creatures. This effectively brainwashes them, and they always do his bidding.”

Roxas pointed at the mask of one of the Shy Guys. “Hey, what’s that symbol on its face?”

“What symbol?” Namine asked. She looked closely at the mask’s brand and gasped. “Th-That… That’s the brand of the Heartless!”

“The brand of the Heartless?” Olivia asked. “What does that mean? I mean, the Folded Soldiers were already pretty much heartless to begin with, but this _really_ doesn’t sound good! It looks like the only way we’re going to be able to advance further through the District is by fighting these guys!”

Sora charged and lunged at one of the Goombas. Thrusting his Keyblade at the Goomba’s face, Sora heard a loud clang and began to feel dizzy. Several sparks were created from the collision, but the Goomba remained unfazed by the attack. Sora slowly backed away from it.

“No… they’re… _immune_ to the Keyblade?” Sora looked at his weapon nervously. “How can this be?”

Kairi grinned at Sora. “Ha… you’re just rusty with your Keyblade. Let’s see them survive against magic!” She pointed the tip of her blade at the Goomba and yelled, “Firaga!”

A beam of fire was launched from the Keyblade into the squad of Goombas. The flame hit the wall behind them and burst, spreading flames everywhere. The wall was smeared with black burn marks and smoke filled the air, shrouding the Folded Soldiers in darkness. When the smoke finally cleared, they noticed the Folded Soldiers were relatively clean and unharmed by the attack. Sora lunged at them once again and managed to land a blow on one of the Shy Guys. It was hit backward over the wall and fell to the concrete below. The remaining Folded Soldiers decided they would charge at Sora, but Riku and Kairi came to his aid and managed to defeat them. When the Folded Soldiers were defeated, they burst into…

“What is this stuff?” Namine said, picking it up off the ground. 

“When Folded Soldiers are defeated, they burst into confetti,” Olivia explained. “Confetti is very important for filling in holes made by my brother’s minions.”

Kairi examined her Keyblade. “So… it seems like we’re supposed to use magic to weaken the Folded Soldiers first, and then we can strike them with our weapons… These Heartless are strange…”

“Actually,” Olivia started, “those Folded Soldiers have a weakness we can exploit. They have these seals with my brother’s face on them somewhere… I’m pretty sure it’s on their back. If we manage to destroy that seal, we can disarm them, and they can be attacked with melee weapons.” She turned to Kairi. “When you used your flame attack, it burst when it hit the wall behind them, destroying their seals. This weakened them enough to the point where your Keyblades were able to destroy them.”

“Wait, what do you mean by… _holes_ made by the origami?” Xion asked. 

“There are these paper mache soldiers that leave giant holes in the Paper World when they attack. These creatures are known as Paper Macho soldiers, and they can deal a lot of damage to you and your surroundings if you are not careful.”

Aqua looked at a small window across the District and noticed a small black hole in the center of it. “You mean like that?”

Olivia suddenly jumped up. “Yes! Just like that one! Wait… if there are holes in this world…” She fiddled with her hands nervously. “Then that means… my brother has been ordering origami to destroy other worlds! Those holes aren’t bottomless… but it will be very painful if you fall in one of them. At least, I think it well. I can hover, so it doesn’t really apply to me.”

“How do we fill in the holes?” Sora asked.

“The confetti you collected.” Olivia scooped up a pile of confetti and shoved it into Sora’s hands. 

“Where am I supposed to store this? I don’t have any room!” Sora complained. 

“Right, I was going to give you this,” Olivia said, tossing an empty leather bag on the floor. “This bag will allow you to store confetti. The confetti can be applied to all kinds of surfaces—walls, floors, trees—and it can easily be replenished. All you need to do is go up to a paper shrub or tree and start whacking away… Well, you’ll need a powerful tool to do enough damage to get confetti. Too bad we don’t have a hammer or something.”

Kairi walked forward and picked up the bag. Lea suddenly groaned in pain and tripped over something. There was a folded white creature poking at him… A Moogle.

“We can’t stay here in Traverse Town, guys!” Roxas shouted. “There are too many Folded Soldiers, and they’ve been recruited by the wielders of darkness!”

“Right,” Aqua said. “We’ll just take the Gummi Ship, and then we can travel to another world.”

“Actually, before we leave…” Namine walked down the narrow ramp to the plaza below them. “I think we should check out the Second District… just to be safe.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to explore the town a little more,” Sora said. “Let’s follow Namine. Hopefully we don’t run into any more of those origami freaks.” He noticed Olivia glaring at him slightly. “Er… I mean, those… Folded Soldier freaks. Sorry, Olivia… bad wording.”

Namine walked over to the door leading to the Second District but quickly realized something. The door was jammed, or stuck. There seemed to be something blocking it on the other side. 

“I can’t get it open,” Namine said. “Something huge is blocking it.”

“Then I guess we have no choice,” Roxas said.

“Please… you aren’t going to do what I think you’re going to do, right?” Xion asked.

“What? You’d rather stay here and get mauled by the Heartless? I’m getting us out of here.” He cast Firaga at the wooden door, destroying it in seconds. Flaming pieces of wood were sent everywhere, revealing a massive dark tube leading up into the sky.

Olivia cautiously moved closer to it. “This… Is this one of my brother’s streamers? It looks… strange, almost like it’s made of darkness…”

“Streamers?” Sora thought. He tapped his Keyblade against the dark substance. His Keyblade was pushed back by some invisible force, like two magnets of the same charge repelling each other. An orangish light flashed a few centimeters away from the streamer… it was shielded.

“Wait! Look!” Lea said, pointing to a small fountain with a mural at the other end of the District. “The streamer leads into the fountain! Now… if only we could find some way to destroy the streamer…”

“Wasn’t that where…?” Sora gasped. “...Where the Keyhole to this world was?”

Kairi climbed over the streamer that was blocking the path to the fountain and pointed her Keyblade at the mural sitting above it. She felt the Keyblade in her hand rumbling violently, but nothing else happened. 

“There’s definitely a Keyhole around here somewhere,” Kairi mused. “I can feel its power… the Keyblade is responding to it.”

“Hmph. So, you found the Keyhole to Traverse Town. Congratulations.”

“Olly!” Riku growled. “What are you doing here again?!”

“I was just checking on your progress.” Olly hovered over to the mural near Kairi. “I see you’ve found where the Keyhole is located. However, with no knowledge of how to activate it, I’m afraid your journey here in Traverse Town has reached its end.”

Olivia quickly moved over to Olly. “B-Brother, how could you?! I used to support you, but now… All these things you’re doing… they’re so mean! I couldn’t possibly support anyone like that!”

“So be it,” Olly growled. “I don’t need your help, sister. I have thousands of origami soldiers at my disposal. They will all do my bidding, and I will declare myself the TRUE KING OF AN ORIGAMI KINGDOM!”

Aqua walked over to Olly and tried jabbing at him with her Keyblade. “What have you done with Terra and Ventus?! Where are they?!”

Olly sneered. “Oh… you shouldn’t be worried about your friends. I can assure you, they didn’t feel anything. They’re perfectly safe, and I know exactly where I left them. Oh, and speaking of origami… I’ll be leaving this here.” He summoned a few Paper Macho Soldiers. “Goodbye for now.” With that, he disappeared into the dark alleyway, leaving three giant paper Goombas.

“Th-These are the Paper Macho Soldiers I warned you about!” Olivia warned. “Brace for impact, everybody! And remember my lesson: aim for the seal, destroy it, then destroy the enemy!”

“Here they come!” Xion shouted, watching as the towering Goombas prepared to charge at them. “Let’s get them, Keyblade Warriors!”


	8. Keyblade Warriors

One of the Paper Macho Goombas charged toward Kairi who was still near the fountain. She pushed herself off the wall of the fountain, narrowly avoiding the Goomba’s attack. The Goomba tripped over the small barrier surrounding the fountain and face-planted in the cold water inside of it. Kairi noticed a small seal with Olly’s face on its back. Realizing her enemy was vulnerable, she pulled out her Keyblade and slashed at the seal, destroying it. There was a small bit of smoke that appeared after the collision, but the Goomba quickly jumped out of the fountain, clearly angered. Before it could do anything, it started to short-circuit, and a white flag appeared on top of its head.

“What does the flag mean, Olivia?” Kairi shouted, retreating toward the rest of the group. 

“Flag? What flag?” She turned around, noticed the Goomba, and smiled. “Oh! Brilliant! You managed to disarm the Paper Macho Soldier! That’s the first step to taking them down. Always disarm them, then strike.”

“Strike?” Kairi raised her Keyblade. “Like… strike them with a sword? Or a Keyblade?”

“Yes! Once they’re disarmed, they’re pretty much vulnerable to any attack you use against them. I would recommend using a fire attack on them since they’re made out of paper, but at the same time, I advise saving your MP for stronger enemies.”

“MP… I’m not sure what that means.”

Olivia shrugged. “Um… I heard about that word before. Whatever! Less talking, more fighting! Take out the creature, Kairi!”

Kairi turned around to face the creature once more, but then… She realized the creature wasn’t focusing on her anymore, but rather, staring intensely at the fountain and gyrating randomly. There were chunks of stone being thrown through the air around the Goomba. After a few more seconds, the Goomba finally turned around, revealing a giant black hole in the wall of the fountain.

“It… I… It’s eating the fountain?!” Kairi shouted. “That’s disgusting!”

“Yeah, it is,” Olivia responded. “But it’s also very dangerous! We need to destroy the Goomba and then restore the hole in the town using the confetti we collected.”

The Goomba turned around and continued to nibble at the fountain as Kairi slowly crept closely toward it. She lunged at it and swung her Keyblade down, hitting it with all her might. Several brown pieces of paper fell off of the Goomba’s body as it suddenly flinched and fell backward into the fountain, spraying water everywhere. Kairi slashed at it once more before jabbing the Keyblade into its back. The Goomba exploded into a pile of brown confetti. Kairi panicked and tried to salvage some of the confetti that had been dropped but they were ruined by the water.

Meanwhile, Sora and Xion were struggling against the two remaining Paper Macho Goombas. One Goomba forced them backward into the walls supporting a staircase while the other Goomba prepared to charge at them. Xion and Sora cast Aeroga to push the first Goomba out of the way as the second Goomba dashed toward them. Xion pulled Sora right and the Goomba crashed into the wall, leaving a giant hole. There was the sound of something hitting the ground, but the noises made by the Goomba eventually disappeared. 

“Thanks, Xion,” Sora said. “Sorry about what I said before… the teasing…”

“It’s fine,” Xion grumbled. “No matter how I’m feeling, I’ll always support my friends. But, you, Sora… you’re skating on thin ice right now!”

“Okay, we can talk more about this after we kill the mushroom things, alright?” He charged at the Goomba, startling it. The winds surrounding Sora pushed the Goomba back several feet into the back of the District. 

Riku and Lea followed the Goomba and pinned it against the wall with their Keyblades. Roxas aimed the tip of his Keyblade at the Goomba’s face and cast a fire spell, vaporizing it completely. Strips of confetti filled the air, which Sora tried to catch. Sora walked up to the hole made in the staircase and tossed a few fistfuls of confetti at it, sealing the gap. This time, however, some yellow metal object popped out as the hole closed. Sora jumped back and tripped over himself as he stumbled backward.

“Oh, coins!” Olivia said, barely managing to pick one of them up. “Wow… these seem much bigger close-up like this. We don’t have anywhere to use them on right now. Well, except for the accessory shop, but the shopkeeper is currently… origami.”

“Maybe we should revisit his house again, find the key, and then just get to the accessory shop ourselves,” Namine suggested. “I mean… it’s trespassing, sure, but… it’s for the greater good. We will use it to undo the origami your brother has spread across our worlds.”

“We should seal the Keyhole first,” Riku suggested. “Otherwise the darkness will continue to consume this world, as well as King Olly… Let’s seal this Keyhole and then travel to a different world. There’s no doubt that Olly’s spread his forces across other worlds as well. When we seal the Keyhole, this streamer should disappear.”

“Right, but, how do we get to the Keyhole?” Kairi asked. “It seems like it’s… _behind_ the fountain?”

“Well… I remember the second time we visited Traverse Town, Donald, Goofy, and I talked to some friends in Cid’s home. They mentioned some kind of legend about the bell on top of the gizmo shop, and that I should ring it three times to see what happened.”

“What happened?” Riku asked.

Sora motioned to the mural behind the fountain. “Whenever we rang the bell, the mural would move. After the third ring, the mural changed to a beautiful picture, revealing Traverse Town’s Keyhole.”

Olivia began jumping around excitedly. “Ooh! That sounds very interesting! I can’t wait to see this keyhole!”

Roxas smirked. “I think you’d like it. Sealing one of those is like performing a magic trick. Except, well… it’s not a trick. And it’s actually real.”

“Hang on! Before we do any of that, don’t you think we should repair the holes left by the Goombas?” Olivia pointed to the fountain. 

Kairi walked up to the fountain and sprinkled some confetti on top of the large gaping hole made by the paper-mache monster. The hole sealed itself and released coins. Kairi let out a quick sigh of relief before pocketing the bag of confetti.

* * *

Meanwhile, Olly and his new acquaintances watched as Sora and his friends easily destroyed the paper-mache Heartless. Everyone scowled at Olly, who just stared at the ground in defeat. He had put so much time and effort into creating his soldiers, yet they were defeated in minutes by a group of… well, mostly teenagers.

“Olly…” the woman growled through her gritted teeth. “You told us these origami creatures would be strong! You said you made them _invincible_ to the Keyblade! And look what happened! A few minutes later, your origami creations are reduced to measly scrap paper!”

“I’m not sure what happened, I—”

“Shut up!” She pounded the table angrily. “Don’t give me excuses! You promised us strong Heartless, but they were _weak_!”

“Wait!” Olly jumped up suddenly. “Who… is that? Could that be…?” He shook his head and lowered his voice to a whisper. “No… that can’t be Olivia… or could it?” He looked closer at the yellow creature hovering around them as they marched toward the gizmo shop. Out of nowhere, he pounded the table and let out an enraged scream. “OF COURSE! I THOUGHT THE FOLDED SOLDIERS WOULD BE ABLE TO MANIPULATE HER INTO JOINING MY ARMY, BUT NOOO, THEY CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!”

“Geez, I thought I had a temper,” the blue-haired man sighed. 

“Hmph.” Olly calmed himself down and sulked and turned to face the man. “Hades… why don’t you just destroy Sora and his friends yourself then?”

Hades rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m the god of the Underworld, alright? I don’t exactly have time to go on a random goose chase. I’m on a tight schedule here. Gotta take over Olympus, destroy Hercules… the usual stuff. Of course, Sora’s gonna find some way to stop me eventually, but I’ll find a way to delay him long enough to complete my plan!”

Olly looked at him suspiciously. “And _how_ exactly do you plan on doing that?”

Hades grinned. “Let’s just say… I have an _old buddy_ who can help me with that. And Titans. They have proven to be quite useful in invading Olympus in the past.”

“How exactly did they fail, if they’re so great?”

“Because… Wonderboy just had to show up,” Hades said, his voice raising with every word, “and ruin EVERYTHING AS USUAL!” His head turned bright red and flames erupted from it. Taking a deep breath, he continued his speech. “Alright, so… here’s the thing. My Titans are pretty easy to spot, which will make the mission harder. I just need a decoy to distract Zeus while I enter Olympus, and BOOM! Olympus gets taken over by the god of the Underworld!”

“Sounds fun,” Olly said sarcastically, playing with a piece of paper in front of him. “Well, you’d better get to it then. No doubt this… _Wonderboy_ … is already defending Olympus.”

Hades scoffed. “What do _you_ know about taking down Greek heroes? I mean… do you have some powerful brother who rules over all of Olympus and can take down anything with one strike?”

“One strike… one strike?” Olly gasped. “Wait, you don’t mean… Zeus, do you?”

“Bingo! Right on the money, origami dude.” Hades summoned a sphere of darkness. “Zeus is gonna be a real tough nut to crack, and so is Hercules. I guess unintentionally being ANNOYING is a running trait in the family or something! HOWEVER!” He began to fold the sphere of darkness into the shape of a… strange creature. “My Titans and our Heartless shall destroy Olympus for good!” 

Olly cleared his throat. “You keep mentioning these… _Titans_. What are they supposed to do in this mission?”

Hades sighed. “Just… the usual stuff. Invade Olympus, freeze stuff, burn stuff, capture Zeus, capture Hercules, I take over Olympus as the main god… that’s the plan. The plan I’ve been working on for eighteen years now. I WILL GET OLYMPUS! I _WILL_!!!”

Olly turned back to the front of the room, where the vision of Sora and someone who looked eerily similar to Olivia and the rest of the Keyblade wielders began to fade away. Olly sighed, and thought back to his previous memories… The desire to build a kingdom, becoming a powerful ruler with Olivia at his side, introducing Olivia to origami… Perhaps one day he would be able to fulfill his wish. He moved over to the far corner of the room and opened a small black portal. 

“Where do you think you're going?” the horned woman growled.

“I… I have somewhere I need to be,” Olly explained. “There’s a certain someone I have to _take care of_ . And that ‘someone’ is not Olivia. I have an even bigger target. In the world where I came from, there was this village with a castle nearby. The world is surrounded by darkness. The people still in my world cannot escape. I shall capture the castle and the princess, and create my origami kingdom… and improve on my Folded Heartless.” He slowly stepped into the portal before whispering, “Make no mistake, sister… I _will_ make you join me... eventually.”


	9. The Search

“Sora, you’re sure this is where we’re supposed to go?” Riku asked, staring at the ladder leading to the roof of the gizmo shop. 

“Er, not really. But I’m _pretty sure_ this was the way me, Donald, and Goofy revealed the Keyhole. If not, then I’m not really sure where we’re supposed to go.”

“We might as well try,” Namine suggested. “If not… we can just travel somewhere else and return here later.”

Sora sighed and climbed up the ladder to the roof of the shop. The town was quiet other than some strong gusts of wind, none of which bothered Sora or the others. Some Red Nocturnes and Blue Rhapsodies appeared and unleashed fire and ice attacks on them. Olivia decided to hide in Roxas’ pocket.

“What are you doing, Olivia?” Roxas said, giggling. “That tickles.”

“I… It’s not safe for me here! Fire and paper go together like… well, fire will obliterate paper! And I kinda like being alive, thank you very much!”

Roxas sighed. “Alright, fine. You can stay there for now. But you owe me later.”

“Whatever!” Olivia shouted, attracting the attention of the Heartless. “Just get me away from those fiery freaks! We can discuss this later!”

One of the Rhapsodies shot the ladder with a Blizzard attack, which shattered on impact. One shard of the ice hit Roxas and he lost his grip on the ladder. Olivia nearly fell out of his pocket, holding on as tight as she could. 

“Hang on, Olivia!” Roxas yelled. He threw his Keyblade at one of the Heartless. “Just… just give me… a few seconds!”

Sora cast Stopra on several of the Emblem Heartless while Roxas scooped Olivia back into his pocket and they reached the top of the building. There wasn’t much on the roof of the shop, but it did offer a gorgeous view of Traverse Town. On the right of them was a small wooden barricade… at least what was left of it. There was a giant, gaping hole in the middle of it and pieces of wood spread around it.

Xion looked at Sora with a sly expression. “Sora, _you_ didn’t do this, did you?”

Sora scratched the back of his head nervously. “Hehe, um… we didn’t really have much of a choice. The bell was behind the wooden platform, and we couldn’t access it unless we used a Trinity.”

“A… Trinity?” Olivia asked. “What’s that? Is that some kind of attack?”

“No, not an attack,” Sora explained. “It’s more like a symbol on the ground. When Donald, Goofy, and I found a Trinity, we were able to do some really cool things! Like summoning chests, smashing through things, pushing objects…” He noticed a small circle on the floor outlined with hearts. “Ah! There’s a Trinity right there on the ground!”

“A…?” Olivia looked at the object for a few seconds, before jumping excitedly. “Wow! This looks really good! Hmm… I wonder if there are any of these _Trinities_ where I’m from.”

“I’m sure there are… somewhere,” Aqua said. “Also, that reminds me… You never told us what your world was like, Olivia.”

“W-Well… That’s because, I… haven’t gotten the chance to see it.” She refused to make eye contact with everyone else and looked at the Second District below them. “All I ever got to see was this mushroom island. When I was born, I didn’t see anybody around. I noticed my brother next to me, though. I thought that our creator had folded us and then just abandoned us. I could barely speak, but then I asked my brother where our creator was. He told me that our creator was a coward and that he had no respect for origami and had ditched us. I, of course, believed him—he was family, after all. We found this nice empty house we stayed in for a few days. The weather, though… that was a different story. Most of the day the sky was overcast, and throughout the evening and the night, rain poured down on the island, and we were worried the home could get flooded. But, enough about that.” She sulked. “My brother and I were discussing how to build an origami kingdom. At first, I supported him. Being able to rule over a kingdom of paper and origami alike would’ve been a… a… an honor! But, my brother decided to become a dictator rather than a royal king, and he pressured me to join him. We disagreed, and he used his powers against me. He forced me into a different dimension, and soon, I ended up on the island where I met you.”

“I… I’m really sorry, Olivia,” Kairi said sadly. She smiled calmly. “Don’t worry. When we defeat your brother, we’ll explore your world with you.”

Olivia was nearly tearing up. This was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her. “R-Really?” she croaked. “You would really do that for me?”

Kairi nodded. “Really. And if I break my promise, you can kill all of us with your origami power.”

“Wait, what?” Riku turned to Kairi with a horrified expression, then to Olivia. “Okay, if that’s the case, I don’t want any part in this!”

They all had a good laugh after that. Kairi nudged Riku softly, saying “it was only a joke” and that he should “stop taking things so seriously.” Riku chuckled, and walked over to the bell. There was a wooden rope connected to a large, golden bell. Beside the bell was a sign, which read: _This bell holds some of Traverse Town’s biggest secrets. Legend has it that when the bell is rung three times, a magical door is revealed. And that door can only be sealed with a special key. Those who are full of heart are worthy and have the key within their soul._

Riku skimmed over the sign once more before gripping the rope tightly and ringing the bell. There was a loud _gong_ noise before the mural on the fountain started to move, revealing another painting. One down, two more to go. Ringing the bell two more times, Riku watched excitedly as the mural shifted once more, to reveal—

“Wait a minute…” Sora stared at the mural. “I thought the Keyhole was supposed to be here! Also… the mural looks strange, almost like someone drew on it.”

Olivia grumbled. “This must be my brother’s doing. He obviously knew where this Key… Hole, whatever thing, was located. Someone must have told him. I’ve been with him ever since he was born. He has never once left the mushroom island, so…” She suddenly became worried. “What if something bad happened to him?”

Aqua glared. “He captured my friends, and now he’s probably going to kill them! Why are you so concerned about him now?!”

“He may be insane,” Olivia said, looking at Aqua with a stern expression, “but he’s still my brother. He still has a heart… a passion for origami and a passion to build his kingdom. We still might be able to convince him to join our side against the Heartless.”

“Your brother is controlling a group of origami Heartless,” Sora explained. “I… I have a feeling that if he has a heart, it’s shrouded in darkness. If he even has a heart left.”

Olivia slapped Sora on the face. “Don’t talk about my brother like that! He has a heart! I _know_ he does!”

“So… I don’t have a heart, you say? You have the audacity to call me _heartless_? You’re sure you’re not the one without a heart?” Olly hovered a few inches in front of Sora’s face, holding a peculiar folded object in his hand. “You’ve proven yourself to be annoying. Well, then… let’s see your reaction… to this!”

Olly threw the object on the ground, which landed with a strange sound. It sounded like a metal pipe surrounded by thousands of sheets of folder paper hitting the ground. The object was shaped like Sora’s Keyblade but instead of having a Mickey symbol attached to the Keychain, there was a pendant-like object with a green center attached to it. Aqua picked up the object and gasped and suddenly dropped it.

“What’s wrong, Aqua?” Roxas asked. He noticed the object. “W-Wait a minute… Th-That’s…”

“V-Ventus’ Keyblade…” Aqua stuttered. Flustered, she swung the Keyblade randomly at Olly, landing a successful blow on his cheek. “You… YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

Olly rubbed his cheek angrily. “Oh, so that’s how you want to play, huh?! Well then… I can easily summon more Folded Heartless. And, I heard about the legend of that bell. So I found a way to prevent you from sealing the Keyhole! Let’s just say a friend of mine decided to do some _public artwork_ on the fountain. Heh heh…” He regained his composure and opened the portal behind him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me… I must be heading back to my lair. Also, these streamers of darkness? Brilliant idea, right? And you wanna know who thought it up? Yours truly!”

“Enough of this, Olly,” the horned woman growled. “Don’t let them know about our plan, you moron!”

“Maleficent?!” Sora shouted. “What are _you_ doing here?!”

“None of your business, pipsqueak.” Maleficent ignored him and turned to Olly again. “Olly… unleash your anger on these fools!”

“Very well, Maleficent.” Olly looked disappointedly at Olivia. “I’m sorry, sister… It had to be done.”

A colossal origami figure approached from the sky. It appeared to be like the Paper Macho Soldiers they had fought earlier, only _much_ bigger. With all his might, Olly began to summon several more creatures: One was a red figure with a mask over its face, and the other was a turtle-like creature with yellow skin and a green shell. Sora raised his Keyblade toward the sky, bracing for impact.

There was a sudden bright flash in the sky. There was a deafening noise that rang throughout the city. Olly stared in disbelief, and so did Maleficent. The Goomba began to tear apart, splitting in half, followed by the mask-wearing creature and the turtle. The origami creatures began to dissolve into confetti, which rained down on the entire town. Olly began spewing out curse words and Maleficent had to restrain them as they both walked back through the darkness into the shadows. Even the Keyblade Warriors couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Wh-What… was that?!” Roxas said, perplexed. 

Beside him, Lea reached out toward the sky and caught a Chakram. “Eternal Flames.” He chuckled softly. “I had no idea they could be this powerful.”

Olivia stared at him in amazement. “Wow! I’ve never seen anything quite like that before. Was that a ninja star? Sorry, my brother just used to have this fascination with ninjas and stuff like that. You’re amazing, um… Lea!”

Lea blushed a bit. “Erm… thanks. But I’m doing this for my friends. Not to impress anyone! I swear!”

“Nobody suggested that, Lea,” Aqua said matter-of-factly. “The fact that you said that… Feels strange now.”

“Yeah,” Roxas teased. “Come on, Lea, tell us the truth!”

“Why are you all against me?!” Lea sighed. “Well, I guess there’s no point in arguing against you. You’ll just keep bugging me until I either die from boredom or from exhaustion. And then you’ll have to deal with _you know who_ forever! Again!”

Sighing, they decided to climb back down the gizmo shop ladder and head to the exit of Traverse Town before looking for the gummi ship. 

“Guys, I think we should get some rest,” Roxas suggested. 

“Where?” Xion asked.

“I remember there was a hotel in the Second District.” Sora fiddled with his Keyblade. “After my fight with Leon, I remember he took me into one of the hotel rooms with Yuffie.”

“We should stay there for the night,” Riku said. “It sounds… relaxing.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Aqua said. “Come on, everyone. We’ll get out there tomorrow.”

* * *

The hotel was mostly abandoned, but the rooms were still relatively clean—neatly-folded bed sheets, clean floor and windows, beautiful paintings in every room—it looked gorgeous. Aqua, Kairi, Olivia, Xion, and Roxas stayed in one room while Lea, Riku, Sora, and Namine stayed in the other room. Aqua turned off the lamp next to the bed before resting her head on the pillow and falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

_Wh-Where am I? My head hurts…_

_Where is everyone? The last thing I remember was… NO!_

_What are they doing to him?! I—I DON’T WANT TO WATCH THIS!_

_Why are you doing this…? This isn’t right… Please don’t…_

_His screams… They’re unbearable. I would rather die than watch this again!_

_They’re torturing him… Manipulating him… Creasing him in ways beyond my imagination…_

_This was all because of their master… Then why are they taking out their anger on us…?_

_Finally… the screams stopped. My friend… is no longer the person I remember. No matter._

_They’ll put me through the same torture he had endured for so long…_

_The unbearable pain, silenced by a loud snap…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow... that ending was pretty dark... Lol


	10. The Vision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: (Chapter title fixed. Said "Visio" instead of "Vision" xD)

“Keyblade Wielder…” A sinister voice entered a dark, dreary room, like a prison cell. There was a large stone slab meant for sleeping and a small window toward the roof to let some light in for whoever was held captive there. On the left of the room was a rusty iron door with a small keyhole on the outside. 

The voice spoke again. “I hope you’re ready.”

“Wh-What do you want… You… murderer!” The voice came from a boy with yellow hair. He backed into the corner. “G-Give me back my friend!”

“Your friend?” The voice slowly turned sadistic. “You mean… _him_?!”

He pointed to the door to the cell. A strange figure walked in with brown hair, a black shirt, and blue eyes. The figure held a Keyblade in his hand tightly. 

“T-Terra!” the boy yelled. “Wh-What happened to you?!”

There was silence. The man named Terra watched expressionless as the boy in front of him began to panic.

“Don’t worry, my boy,” the first voice said. “You’ll join your friend soon enough. Once we prepare the stapler again, we’ll be able to fold you into origami. Forget about the Paper World. Join us as we re-shape this world into nothing… but _origami_.”

Terra spoke, his voice deep and raspy. “ _Join us… Ventus…”_

* * *

Aqua suddenly jerked awake. She could feel her heart pulsing through her chest. Breathing rapidly, she slowly got up from the bed that had been prepared for her and exited the bedroom. _What was that vision?_ She stumbled around the small area, trying her best to avoid the people sleeping around her. Aqua stepped outside onto the balcony and felt the cold night air gently graze her face. _Just a dream_ , she thought, trying to forget about what she saw. 

But Olly had taken Ventus’ Keyblade away from him… Perhaps the vision Aqua had pictured was more than just a nightmare. Aqua shook her head and sighed. _No, that would be impossible, there’s no way Ventus could be defeated like that… I hope_.

Roxas noticed the cold air almost immediately and shivered. He woke up and noticed Aqua standing outside, staring blankly at the ground below. He pushed the comforter off of his body and walked up to her.

“Aqua?” asked Roxas. “What are you doing?”

Aqua sighed. “Nothing, Roxas. Go back to bed.”

“Ever since a few hours ago, you’ve changed. I know you’re worried about Ventus and Terra, but you should really relax. I’m sure Ventus and Terra are strong enough to defend themselves.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Roxas’ tone became stern. “But, seriously… what’s wrong now?”

“It… It’s nothing. I just needed some fresh air.”

“Aqua… please. We’re friends, aren’t we? Friends are always supposed to have each others’ backs. If we hide secrets from each other… we wouldn’t be good friends, would we? Just tell me what’s bothering you so bad.”Aqua glared slightly. “You don’t know how to respect boundaries, do you?” 

Roxas shook his head. “No, I mean yes, I… Look, I can respect personal boundaries, but you’ve been acting really strange lately. I know you’re worried about Ventus and Terra, but… holding these secrets will only stress you out more. If you tell me the truth, maybe you will be relieved of some of that stress?”

Aqua closed her eyes and took a deep breath before answering Roxas’ question. “I… I had a nightmare earlier. That’s why I was out here. I needed some cold air to refresh myself and calm myself down.”

“A nightmare of what?”

“I already told you what I was doing out here. What more could you possibly need?”

“Tell me more. I just want to help you, Aqua. Tell me about what you saw in your nightmare.”

Aqua winced a small bit. “Well… it’s a little hard to describe, but it went like this. I saw Ventus sitting in this small prison-like cell, it was so drab and disgusting. He looked so nervous and really skinny… I don’t think they were feeding him nutrients. I assume he was pretty nervous. Then, out of nowhere, the cell door opened.”

“What happened after that?”

“Don’t interrupt me,” Aqua said, scowling. “As I was saying, the cell door opened, and Olly entered the cell, followed by Terra. Except… this wasn’t the ordinary Terra we all know. He was all… origami-like—folded body, different hairstyle, and his clothes were all creased. They both approached Ventus, and Terra asked Ventus to join them.” Aqua shuddered at that last statement. “I… I really hope that was just a dream.”

“Oh…” Roxas gently put his arm on Aqua’s shoulder. “I… Yeah, I’m pretty sure that was just a dream. Don’t worry about Ventus and Terra. There’s no way they could possibly be defeated by origami, right? You need to have more faith in your friends. I’ll be here to support you, Aqua. I swear.”

Aqua smiled gently. “Thanks, Roxas… I feel a little better now. I’ll go back to sleep soon; I just wanted to refresh myself a little while longer.”

Roxas smiled. “That’s fine. I’ll go back inside now. See you later, Aqua.”

A few minutes after Roxas went back inside the hotel, Aqua followed him. She closed the sliding door and wandered slowly over to the bed. She placed the bed comforter neatly on the bed and thought for a few moments before finally falling asleep.

* * *

Aqua found herself sitting in a strange room—almost like a dungeon. There was water dripping from the ceiling, stone walls coated with green moss and algae, and an overwhelming stench of… Well, it definitely _smelled_ like a dungeon. There was no sound, except for the gentle drops of water hitting the stone floor. Aqua let out a sigh of relief before sitting down gently in the dungeon. There was suddenly a loud _snap_ , making Aqua jump about a foot in the air in surprise. Aqua glanced around the room nervously before noticing a small crack in the wall. She pushed several pieces of rubble out of the way before peeking through the hole. She noticed a black metallic object slowly opening up before closing with a mighty crack. Aqua noticed a small figure heading toward the wall and gasped before quickly ducking down out of sight. She peered back into the whole again, and watched as the figure exited the room through a splintered wooden door on the right side of the room.

Aqua heard a voice and shivered.

“Hmph… not bad, not bad at all… But we need more soldiers. Prepare the stapler for the next batch of minions. I will be back soon. I have some… business… I must attend. Do not let the prisoners escape.”

“Prisoners?” Aqua whispered to herself. “What prisoners?”

She heard a quiet voice coming from the room on the opposite side of the cell she was being kept in. She noticed there were some bricks missing in the wall leading to the hallway so she could see into the other person’s cell. There was a person with yellow hair and blue eyes. They were very stiff and their eyes were darting across the room nervously, as if they were expecting something to come crashing through the walls.

Aqua was speechless. “V—Ven?”

Ventus didn’t hear. He was too paranoid to listen.

“Damn it, Ven…” Aqua cleared her throat before shouting much louder. “VENTUS!”

Ventus suddenly jumped and noticed Aqua staring at him. “A-Aqua?” He was still panicking. “Wh-What are you doing here?”

“I… I don’t know how I got here!” Aqua glared. “What happened?! I… I’m sorry, Ven! Um… what happened to you? Where have you been?”

“I got trapped in this world.” Ventus sighed. “It’s really strange, almost like everything’s made out of paper here. When I came to, I found myself in this cell, and I realized my body felt a lot lighter than usual. I… found out that my body had turned to paper. At first, I was really freaked out, but then I realized that it wasn’t so bad. Well, at least until Origami Dictator over there came along and started taking everyone hostage. I remember I was in this placed called Toad Town, it was really nice and everyone was so friendly there. That’s the place I was able to send you my letter from.”

Aqua nodded and spoke shakily. “I see.” 

“Aqua, what’s wrong? You’ve been acting very nervous talking to me. You’re normally confident when you speak to me and…” His voice dropped to a sad mumble. “…and Terra.”

“Wait, you saw Terra?” Aqua shouted excitedly. “Where is he? Can I talk to him?”

“He… He was folded into origami, I’m afraid.” Ventus took a deep breath. “King Olly walked into my cell with a folded Terra behind him. He didn’t even sound the same! It was like he was a completely different person! That origami asshole must’ve brainwashed him or something! When I find Olly again, I’m gonna tear him to shreds! Well… I _would_ , but you see… I don’t have my Keyblade. I got knocked out and put in this cell. I tried summoning my Keyblade, nothing happened.”

“You lost your Keyblade?” Aqua groaned.

“Of _course_ I didn’t lose it!” Ventus glared. “I had my Keyblade when I entered this world. And now… I find myself locked in this dungeon without a weapon.”

“K-King Olly…” Aqua sighed. “He… Gave me your Keyblade. He’s the reason you don’t have it.”

“I knew it,” Ventus growled, slamming the stone wall in front of him. “I KNEW IT! I DON’T CARE IF I HAVE MY KEYBLADE OR NOT, I’M GONNA DESTROY OLLY WHEN I SEE HIM AGAIN!”

A strange voice came from the neighboring room. “Be quiet over there. You will be next to join our army. You will soon be reunited with your friend.”

Aqua shivered hearing the voice. “Wh-What was that noise?” she hissed to Ventus.

“Those are a couple of Olly’s Folded Soldiers,” Ventus replied. “I heard about them while I was being dragged to the dungeon. Apparently, they used to be normal paper folk just like you and me right now, but then… Olly came along, captured them, and folded them against their will. They also happen to be using this giant stapler to keep the origami creatures folded.”

“A stapler, huh… That would explain the loud snapping sound I heard earlier.”

Both Ventus and Aqua suddenly went silent when they heard the sound of a door creaking. Olly had returned to the dungeon, this time holding several paper creatures. He quickly placed them on the floor next to the dungeon entrance before locking the door. He grabbed one of the creatures—a Koopa Troopa—and carried him close to the torture room. After he was a few steps away from the remaining few creatures, Olly turned around and said, “You shall remain there until your presence is requested. And don’t even think about trying to escape. I’m not very forgiving.”

“Oh, milord…” One voice came from the room. “We… didn’t prepare the stapler yet.”

“What?!” Olly screamed. “We don’t have all day! There are more prisoners we must convert! I happen to have a high-value hostage in the dungeon!”

“Sorry, milord,” the voice seemed stoic, yet apologetic. “We’ll reload the stapler. Just give us a few minutes to get more staples.”

“Do whatever you have to! I don’t care what you have to do!” Olly raised his voice. “I _need_ this origami army as soon as possible!”

Aqua gasped. “High-value…? Ven, is he talking about you?”

“Who else do you think?” Ventus said sarcastically.

“This is no time for jokes, Ven.” Aqua tried to reach her hand out to Ventus. “Please… come with me… We could save Terra together. All of us Keyblade Warriors together.”

“Keyblade Warriors…” Ventus chuckled. “I like the sound of that.”

“VEN! FOCUS! PLEASE!” Aqua quickly lowered her voice. “Why won’t you listen?!”

“I’m afraid this is merely just a vision,” Ventus explained, lowering his head sadly. “We’re still able to interact through speech, but… you won’t be able to bring me back unless we meet in person. And I don’t know when we’ll meet again, Aqua… if we ever _do_.”

“Don’t speak like that!” Aqua frowned. “We’ll be reunited one day! I know we will!”

Ventus smiled sadly. “Thank you, Aqua… Tell everyone I said hi.”

Aqua nodded. “I will.” A bright light began to surround her, completely covering her until she vanished from the room. Aqua felt herself being dragged by some sort of invisible force—she was now surrounded by darkness.

Olly noticed the sudden flash of light and went to investigate the room. He looked in Ventus’ room first before looking at the room Aqua had previously been in. After a few minutes of searching, Olly gave up and returned to the folding room.

* * *

Aqua suddenly opened her eyes. She was still in the hotel bed with Roxas and the others. She climbed off and noticed Roxas sitting on a desk a few feet in front of her. He turned around and smiled.

“You’re finally awake,” he said calmly. “It’s almost eight right now.”

Aqua was still groggy. “Wh-Where is everyone?”

“They’ve gone down to the alley. They wanted to show Olivia around the world a little bit before we leave.”

“What are you still doing here then?” Aqua asked suspiciously. “Why didn’t you go with them?”

Roxas rubbed his chin. “Actually, the reason I stayed behind was because I wanted to ask you something. Uh, you see… You kept rolling around in the bed and kept talking in your sleep. I heard… _Ven_ … a few times. I assume that means Ventus?”

“N-No! Of course not!” Aqua slowly made her way toward the exit. “I was just, um… It was just a nightmare.”

“I don’t think so,” Roxas said sternly. “There’s something going on, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it!”

“Wh-What are you talking about? I already told you a few hours ago! There’s nothing wrong! I’m not hiding anything!” She lowered her voice. “Besides, it’s not like it’s any of your business, anyway.”

“It _is_ too! If we can’t trust each other, we won’t survive this journey!”

Aqua stared at Roxas sadly. “It’s just, I… I’ll tell you later, okay? It’s hard to explain… Maybe I’ll just wait until I meet up with everyone again.” She headed toward the door leading to the hallway. “Goodbye, Roxas.”

Roxas gave her a slight, warm smile. “See you later, Aqua.”

* * *

“Ooh!” Olivia exclaimed. “That was so cool! I’ve never seen Keyblade wielders fight each other before!”

Sora and Riku were both panting and sweating profusely. Riku tried to speak but was out of breath. The only thing he could articulate was a dry brief exhale. Sora looked like he was about to collapse.

Xion rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, you two! You’ve only been sparring for ten minutes! Can’t you wait until later today to become exhausted?”

Sora choked. “You… You try sparring five minutes after waking up, then!”

Xion smirked. “Is that a challenge?”

Sora tried to grin but was too focused on the fact that he was almost completely out of breath. “No… I mean, yes… But not right now!”

“H-Hey…” Everyone turned around to see Aqua heading toward them.

“Oh! Hi, Aqua!” Kairi said. “You finally showed up!”

“Wh-What have you been up to?” Aqua asked.

Xion sighed. “Nothing much. I guess we need to give Sora and Riku an endurance test. They’re already exhausted. It’s been only ten minutes since they started dueling!”

Aqua took a quick breath and shut her eyes tightly. “Um… There’s something I wanted to tell you!”

Namine titled her head. “What did you want to tell us?”

“I… I was talking about this with Roxas earlier. I refused to tell him, because… it just felt so strange and bizarre. Also, it wasn’t his business, but he convinced me to not hold in any secrets and to trust him. Alright, here’s what happened…”

Aqua explained everything, from the first vision with Ventus, Olly, and Terra to the second vision with just Ventus and the stapler. As she continued, she began to feel more and more relaxed, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Roxas walked into the alleyway during the middle of the conversation. “Hey, everyone.”

No one responded. They were too focused on Aqua’s story. Were Ventus and Aqua actually communicating… or was it just a dream?”

“This… This is absurd,” Sora said.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Riku responded. “This must have just been a dream.”

Xion and Olivia seemed to be the only ones who believed Aqua. Xion responded with, “If you talked to Ventus, were you able to talk to Terra, too?”

Aqua shook her head sadly. “No… I don’t think I can. I fear that Olly got to him already. During the first dream, he seemed like he had been turned to origami. He was speaking all weird! He sounded nothing like the real Terra!”

“How do you know that’s not just an illusion?” Lea asked.

“The things Ven described obviously happened. He mentioned that he wanted to kill Olly, but couldn’t because his Keyblade had disappeared, and remember how Olly dropped his Keyblade in front of everyone? Also, Ven said himself that Terra changed and that he was brainwashed by Olly. Ven also wanted me to say hi to all of you for him.” She noticed everyone staring in shock and disbelief. “You… don’t believe me, do you?”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you,” Kairi said. “It’s just that it feels a little strange, what you described.”

“I knew it.” Aqua groaned. “I shouldn’t have explained it to you. Of _course_ this would happen. Never mind.” She felt a mixture of feelings building up inside of her—mainly anger and sadness—but she took a deep breath and calmed herself down. “Fine. Let’s just leave Traverse Town for now.”

“But what about the Keyhole?” Olivia asked. “That’s our only way to remove the dark streamer, right?”

“We can worry about removing the dark streamer after,” Roxas said. “For now, let’s just focus on exploring other worlds. I think we left the Gummi Ship somewhere outside of the Traverse Town plaza gates.”

“Alright then!” Sora shouted. “Let’s head out there!”

* * *

“King Olly… You requested my service?”

Olly sat down on a hastily-folded origami throne. “Yes, I need you to go on a mission for me.”

“Anything, King Olly.” The voice sounded obedient and mischievous. “What is it you would like me to do?”

“I need you to travel to different worlds. Sora and the rest of those… what did they call themselves? That stupid nickname… Those _Keyblade Warriors_.” Olly said the last few words in a mocking tone. “They’re going to be looking for Keyholes scattered across those worlds. If they seal those Keyholes, the dark streamers surrounding the world we are currently in will collapse, and they’ll be able to travel into here and possibly thwart my plans. I need you to ensure that won’t happen. Not until my origami kingdom is complete. And, speaking of Keyholes… I think I might have just found the Keyhole to this world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW, this took a lot longer to post than I thought. This chapter ended up going past 3 thousand words and is the longest chapter so far in "Origami Hearts". I'm planning on making this a really long story, (definitely longer than The Final Trial, and that's like almost 50K words.)


	11. The Villains' Plan

"This is amazing!" Olivia stared at the interior of the Gummi Ship, gushing at just about everything about it. "I'm speechless! I haven't seen anything this cool in…" She suddenly remembered her past, Olly taking her to the mushroom island, and banishing her to Destiny Islands. "Um… it's my first time seeing something like this, but that makes it even better!"

Sora chuckled. "Glad you're enjoying it. Good thing you're so interested in the ship! This ship is our key to traveling to many different worlds!"

Xion rolled her eyes. "Did you just make a pun?"

"I… did?" Sora thought about what he said. "O-Oh… Sorry, Xion. I didn't mean to do that, I swear!"

Roxas sat down in the seat in front of the steering mechanism. He charged up the engines using his Keyblade, spewing smoke several feet around the Gummi Ship. He lifted the nose of the ship and piloted it up through the atmosphere, the rest of them watching as Traverse Town became a tiny dot and eventually disappeared in the distance. They had soon left the world entirely and were now floating in what seemed to be an empty purplish void.

"Whoa!" Olivia said, staring at the world behind her. "This is what Traverse Town looks like? It's so… huge!"

Namine giggled. "All worlds are like this, Olivia. They look really big from the outside, and once you enter, it becomes even bigger!"

"Alright, everyone!" Roxas shouted. "Grab on to something, because I'm about to warp this ship to Olympus!" He plugged in a Warp Gummi to the ship's main panel. "Making the jump in three… two… one!"

Everyone grabbed onto the sides of the ship or gripped one of the seats near them. The ship lurched forward as a giant portal appeared a few hundred feet away from everyone. Roxas carefully steered the ship through the dark portal that had appeared. There was a small light in the distance, and the ship slowly accelerated as it approached the end of the warp tunnel.

* * *

"Alright, then." Hades sighed. "I've got an army of Titans, some origami weirdos, and… I've got my fire powers. How am I supposed to defeat all of those Keyblade wielders with just these guys?!"

"You're immortal, Hades," Maleficent reminded him. "A group of Keyblade wielders should be no match for you. You outnumber them at least a hundred to one."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the god of the Underworld, that's what everyone always tells me." Hades scoffed. "Olly entrusted me with protecting the Olympus Keyhole, but he just gave me flimsy pieces of paper! What does he expect me to do with these… _creatures_?"

"You'll have to do the best with whatever you're given." Maleficent quickly glanced at her staff, which was lying against the wall next to her. "Olly is a very peculiar one, that's for sure. However, I sense great potential within him. I was skeptical at first, when he mentioned his plan to create darkness-infused Origami Heartless. He referred to them as his 'Dark Folded Soldiers.' Olly is… eccentric, to say the least. However, he has a clear passion for his craft, and if we are able to manipulate him enough, he might actually be able to fold some good Heartless for us."

"Manipulate him?" Hades scoffed. "What are we even supposed to turn him against?"

"Not _what_ , Hades, but _who_." Maleficent picked up a small mirror on the table in front of her. After tapping the mirror slightly, a vision appeared on it… a vision of the Gummi Ship warping around through worlds. By the windshield of the ship was Olivia. "Her. That's who we need to turn Olly against."  
"Why would we turn him against his sister? I thought _he_ was trying to manipulate _her_ into joining him! We're just gonna _undo_ all of that?!"

"I'll do what I have to do." Maleficent turned her back toward Hades. "And I suggest that you head down to Olympus and do your job, Hades."

Hades didn't say another word. He groaned and disappeared into a pile of dark smoke, leaving no sign that he had ever been there. Maleficent sighed and waved her hand across the mirror, erasing the vision. Placing the mirror back on the table, she picked up her staff and pondered what she would do next as she paced around the room. Too busy to think properly, she disappeared into the shadows in the back of the meeting room, intending to get into contact with Olly again sometime soon.

* * *

The Gummi Ship approached the light at the end of the warp tunnel. There was a sudden burst of warmth that flew through the ship—warmth like a bath or the sun—which helped relax everyone. Olivia closed her eyes and embraced the warm light; this was a sensation unlike anything she had ever felt before, except for her crash-landing on Destiny Islands. Roxas slowly decreased the speed of the ship when there was a sudden bang. Several pieces of rubble flew through the air, denting the windshield and completely tearing off several blasters on the ship.

"Holy shit!" Roxas was jerked forward by the collision. "What happened?!"

"We lost some of our blasters!" Aqua shouted through the chaos. "We need to land immediately, Roxas! I think we scraped our ship on top of one of the mountains!"

"Alright! I'm gonna land as soon as I find a flat surface on the mountain!" Roxas nervously glanced out the window and veered the ship right when he noticed a trail leading up the mountain. There was a small, flat, grassy area that was presumably used as a resting point for people traveling up the mountain's steep inclines. The landing area was small, but Roxas hoped it would be big enough to land the ship there. He slowly descended until there was a slight bump, meaning they had successfully landed.

Roxas opened the hatch of the ship and peered outside. There were several boulders blocking the path in front of them, smoke was pouring from the bottom of the Gummi Ship, and some blades of grass around them were set ablaze. Aqua also appeared next to Roxas.

She froze. "Uh… We… We didn't do that, did we?"

"Er…" Roxas scratched his neck. "N-No… I mean yes… We may or may not have destroyed a sacred mountain…"

Aqua smacked Roxas in the head. "This is all your fault, Roxas! You were the one piloting the ship!"

"Ow!" Roxas glared at her. "I was _trying_ to fly it straight! I didn't expect the mountain to pop up out of nowhere!"

Sora unlocked the door to the ship and walked down the ramp to the grass, everyone else (besides Aqua and Roxas) following behind him. He stared at the land beneath them—nothing but trees and shrubbery except for a town somewhere in the distance. Sora stared at the top of the mountain and noticed several dark storm clouds materializing above it. A puff of dark cloud slowly descended onto the ground a few feet away from the Gummi Ship before hitting the floor and exploding into a giant smoky mist.

"Alright. My Titans have already entered Olympus, Thebes is in flames… I must say this plan is going well so far. Only thing left is to take care of Herc—" There was a sudden rasping noise, as if the speaker were choking. He forced out the last few words. " _Hercules_ … and make the rest of the Olympian gods bow down to me! HADES, GOD OF THE UNDERWORLD!"

" _God of the Underworld…?_ " Olivia repeated. "What, has this guy gone nuts?"

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" A man suddenly popped out of the smoky cloud with his hair ablaze. He noticed the group of Keyblade Warriors standing in front of him and calmed down. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he groaned and refused to make eye contact with them. Olivia hid herself behind Roxas nervously.

"Hades?" Sora said disappointedly. "You're trying to take over Olympus again? You never learn when to give up, do you?"

"Look, buddy… I really don't care what you have to say." Hades pointed to the city in the distance. "One day… all of that will be mine. And hopefully, that day is today." He cleared his throat and began pacing around the mountain. "Besides, I'm really busy. You know, becoming Olympus' ruler and such."

"Hmph…" Riku thrust his Keyblade toward Hades threateningly. "You still haven't learned?"

Hades chuckled and knocked his Keyblade aside. Riku scowled at Hades, to which the god just laughed. "What, you think you're gonna scare me?" He poked Riku in the chest and sent him stumbling back a few inches.

Namine ran over to Riku and prevented him from falling. Aqua suddenly jumped off the roof of the ship and stared at Hades with a fiery rage. "WHERE… IS… VENTUS?!"

"Ventus?" He tapped his chin. "Ventus, Ventus… Wait, you mean that yellow-haired kid?"

"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME!" She grabbed Hades by his collar and shook him. "WHERE IS HE?!"

"Look, calm down. I know what your friend looks like. The problem is… I don't know where he is right now. Olly just kept mentioning stuff about these two Keyblade wielders and how he was going to… what did he say…? _Fold_ them? Whatever. It was something stupid like that."

Aqua heard Olly's name and froze. "Olly? Y-You know him?"

"Yeah, I was just talking to him the other day. He seemed like a weirdo. He must've bumped his head or something!"

Olivia suddenly charged past Roxas and stared menacingly at the fiery god. "Don't talk about my brother like that!"

"Oh… so _you're_ Olivia, huh…" Hades chuckled. "Olly will be _so_ happy to see you again."

Olivia glared. "I will never join my brother! NEVER!"

Hades titled his head. "Wait a minute. You don't want me to insult your brother, yet you still don't want to support him? I'm sorry, I'm getting confused here. What's going on?"

"My brother… is a good person." She took a deep shaky breath before continuing. "No matter what he does, I know there's still a heart somewhere inside of him. I just need to convince him that what he's doing is wrong."

Hades began to laugh hysterically. "That's hilarious! Really?! Getting Olly to come to his senses?! Look, I wouldn't waste my time on that buffoon. He's very devout, I can respect that, but the problem is that he's just so arrogant! I mean, I can't really say anything, I brag about having power a lot as well, but the difference is that I _actually_ have power! Your brother, on the other hand… he can fold origami. So what?! Millions of people can do that!"

Sora gently pulled Olivia back and whispered to her. "Don't let Hades tempt you. He feeds off your anger. He's trying to agitate you."

Olivia hissed, "I won't let him insult origami like that! He won't get away with this!"

Sora groaned. "You're starting to sound like your brother. Look, just ignore Hades. Let's head down the mountain to the city in the distance. And in the meantime, let's pay Hercules a visit, shall we?"

Hades suddenly froze. "What… was that?"

"Er… n-nothing." Sora slowly eased away from him, holding Olivia gently in his fist. "W-We were just gonna… head… down the mountain."

Hades smirked. "Well, if you wanted to see _Wonderboy_ so much, then why don't I give you all a free trip to Thebes? Don't worry, this flight's on the house!" There was a sudden strong gust of wind that sent everyone flying off the cliff into the distance. "Bon voyage! Hope to see you again soon!" he called out, before quietly mouthing, "not" and continuing up the mountain trial. "Geez, can that Sora possibly get any more annoying?"

A puff of smoke appeared several paces behind Hades. He suddenly heard the loud crack of a stapler slamming down and began to mentally prepare himself for another annoying rant from—

"Olly… what do you want this time?" Hades covered his face with his palm and sighed loudly.

Olly crept out of the shadows. "Nothing much. I just wanted to check on my Folded Heartless. They are serving you well, correct?"

"O-Oh, yeah, yeah! They're great! Terrific! Absolutely wonderful!" Hades lied. "In fact, they're so great, I'd like to request more of them!"

"Hmm… You seem very keen on defeating the Guardians of Light." Olly chuckled. "Very well, then. I will prepare a few dozen more Heartless for you. Make sure you remain hidden and I'll transport them to you. Oh, that reminds me… Where are they, exactly?"

"Um… they fell off the cliff," Hades responded, half-lying.

"How did they fall off?" Olly inquired. "They didn't look _that_ clumsy when I met them in Traverse Town! Well, if they're dead, I guess you don't need me to fold any Heartless."

"Er, it _is_ true they fell off, but… There's still the possibility that they're alive. I request more Heartless. Besides, I still need to defeat Zeus and… _Wonderboy_ and gain control of Olympus. And what better way to do that than to siege Olympus with soldiers?"

Olly glared. "I will _not_ allow you to send my soldiers there. That would be a suicide mission. What are my Folded Heartless supposed to do against the Olympian gods?!"

"Good question, Olly… Oh, here's an idea. Why don't you just fold me some origami Titans? They'll destroy Olympus in seconds!"

"I thought you were trying to take over Olympus as its next ruler, not destroy it," Olly said, with a stoic expression. "I'm not going to fold these soldiers for no reason. Besides, I still don't know what these Titans you keep bringing up even _look_ like! I'm not a psychic! If you aren't going to show me, I'm going to head back to my torture chamber!"

"Wow, you really don't have any patience, do you?" Hades cleared his throat. "Never mind, forget what I said. If you want to see these Titans to badly, I'll gladly show them to you!" He reached out toward the sky. "TITANS! LEND ME YOUR POWER! WE SHALL DESTROY OLYMPUS TOGETHER!"

A swirl of dark clouds appeared a few hundred feet directly above Hades. There was a loud moan, like a mixture between a zombie and Frankenstein. In a single-file line, strange creatures pulled themselves out of the smoke. They were different shapes and colors, and apparently had different abilities, Olly assumed. One was covered in cyan-colored spikes and constantly exhaled water vapor, as if the temperature around them was below freezing. Another was shaped like a tornado and was colored black with orange eyes and an orange mouth. The last of the creatures to appear seemed to be made out of molten lava, bubbling as it pulled itself out of the substance. Olly watched in amazement as more of those creatures exited the vortex and descended to the land.

Olly shook his head suddenly. "Impressive. Thank you for showing me their power, Hades. I shall begin working on this new project immediately."

"Whatever," Hades grunted. He turned around and grinned evilly at his Titan army. He chuckled. "Olly… this could be your chance to finally prove your worth! Build my army, send them to me, and help me seize Olympus from the gods… or maybe destroy it. I'm fine with either one."

"And if I help you, what's in it for me?"

"I'll share my power with you. When I replace Zeus as the main Olympian god, I'll make sure your hard work pays off for you, don't worry! You can trust me here, Olly. We _are_ on the same team, after all."

Olly nodded. "Of course. See you later, Hades. I'm off to begin my work." Olly hovered through the portal and returned to the area he had entered it from—the hallway where the remaining prisoners were being kept. Olly cleared his throat to gain their attention and pointed toward the stapler room. When the prisoners refused, he raged and forcefully dragged them by their arms or whatever limbs they had, opened the door, and threw them inside before locking the door with his key. As Olly passed the cell Ventus was being held captive in, he sighed. _Not right now_ , he thought. _He is a very valuable captive, but I have no use for him right now_.

Before leaving the dungeon entirely, he turned around again and slipped a scribbled note under the door for his Folded Soldiers to read over and a quick sketch of one of the Titans. Beneath the drawing, the note read: _Ice Titan. Powers are the ability to freeze. Has a spiky body and is a giant creature._

Olly climbed up the stairs leading out of the dungeon and entered a giant room where he had folded a throne for himself. He sat down and admired the origami shelves he had created, and the beautiful wall behind him, although… He felt there was something missing about it. It was just plain red… Olly suddenly felt the urge to decorate it, but he shook it off, telling himself to focus more on his priorities. He sighed and noticed an origami crane hanging from the ceiling. He noticed a few sheets of blank origami paper on one of his shelves and picked it up, folding it into an origami crane in about five minutes.

"Father…" He said, staring at the ceiling and clenching his fist on the paper, crushing it. "Father… You ruined me. You have tarnished my existence… and now you shall pay for it. When I finally finish my Thousand-Crane technique, I'll make sure you suffer. I'll make sure you go through the same hell you put me through since the day I was born! No… you don't deserve to be called my father! No good father would ever harm their son! You're the bane of my existence, and I'll make sure I personally watch you _suffer_!" Calming himself down, he sighed and exited the throne room. "Olivia should have listened to me… I… I'll have to watch her suffer as well then. Sister, I'm… I'm sorry."


End file.
